Windows Tips-n-Tricks

[RajanPERT 0]

@CRACKER!!

i am not able to create new folder with name CON in winxp does any body know why?

For mroe information please read:

Extension problem in Windows in same Thread.

Thanks and Take Care!

[ashishbabu 1]

Dual-Boot Win9x + Win9x ==> http://thpc.info/dual/dualboots.html

Hacking Tutorials ==> < Don't Post Illegal Links >

<POST MOVED!>

Edited October 19, 2005 by Vishal Gupta

[ashishbabu 1]

You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.

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

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

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

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.

9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

<TOPIC MERGED!>

Edited October 19, 2005 by Vishal Gupta

[ashishbabu 1]

How to Convert FAT to NTFS file system

To convert a FAT partition to NTFS, perform the following steps.

Click Start, click Programs, and then click Command Prompt.

In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type cmd and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type CONVERT [driveletter]: /FS:NTFS.

Convert.exe will attempt to convert the partition to NTFS.

NOTE: Although the chance of corruption or data loss during the conversion from FAT to NTFS is minimal, it is best to perform a full backup of the data on the drive that it is to be converted prior to executing the convert command.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

@ashishbabu

Next time pls search for existing threads before creating new ones!

And post in right section also...

Don't post Illegal links next time!

[ashishbabu 1]

Sorry!

Next time i will post in right section.

Edited October 20, 2005 by ashishbabu

[Ashokjp 15]

A sleek design of Windows XP

check it out

http://www.fidoworks.com/Royale_theme.zip

[theking 35]

A problem in my windows 2000...

When ever i try to save a file, it shows me the save option but at the stage where the option should be asking for the path where i wanna save it, it directly pop ups my desktop "folder".......and cant save the file.......

Can some one help......

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Can't understand what r u trying to say?

Pls post more details and also attach screenshot, if possible

[theking 35]

Actually...

When i try to download a file,

The download does not start,

It automatically displays the desktop folder

Screen Shots:-

[Vishal Gupta 4]

Ok! I got it

Though the problem is very strange! First tell me one thing: are those files which u d/l using "Save Target As" option, saved in the "Desktop" folder which is automatically opened?

Next is: Try to clear all temporary files and cookies.

And at last disable the "Contenet Advisor" if u enabled it. In Tools menu, click Internet Options, then click the Content tab, and under Content Advisor, click Disable.

[schumi 0]

I need some help from you Guys.I am using the Compaq 1732IL Desktop P4.My problem is that when even I try to download some songs or attachments and whenever I right click on the attachment I want to download, I get several options but the "save target as" option is always disabled.I mean i cannot select that option.How do I enable it.Kindly help me ! :'(

[Nirvana 4]

Both of you, please post the version of Internet Explorer that you are using.

theking, it looks as though its a problem in your Registry key for Internet Explorer. Try installing latest patches for IE.

schumi, you can try disabling Content Advisor as Vishal pointed out. When you click on "Disable" button it will ask you for a password that you used to enable the Content Advisor. Put in the password and the Content Advisor should tell you it's disabled.

If for some reason you don't remember setting the Content Advisor and have no idea what password was used to set it with, go to this link for instructions on how to remove the Content Advisor password:

http://www.pchell.com/support/contentadvisor.shtml

please post back and let us know how it went.

[Vishal Gupta 4]

@schumi

Ur problem is bcoz of Content Advisor has been enabled! Disable it and ur problem should be solved!

[schumi 0]

Thanks Vishal and Nirvana ! My problem has solved !

[theking 35]

I reinstalled explorer and the bug got sorted out.....

Reinstalling IE/patches didnt help, as well as the content was already disabled..

thanx for ur help

[schumi 0]

I want to know whether scanning the computer daily for viruses by Norton antivirus can it cause any harm to the computer.

[Arun 795]

harm in what sense ? other than causing a little more load on the CPU for some time, there is no other real harm. Anyway if you have real time monitoring enabled in NAV, you don't have to run the scan everyday. Just run the full scan once, then update the virus signature file and then keep real monitor on.

[schumi 0]

harm in what sense ? other than causing a little more load on the CPU for some time, there is no other real harm. Anyway if you have real time monitoring enabled in NAV, you don't have to run the scan everyday. Just run the full scan once, then update the virus signature file and then keep real monitor on.

Well how do I enable the Real monitoring in NAV

[raccoon 53]

Using the on-demand scanner everyday can cause your HDD to wear out sooner. Also, know that more often than not the scanners for on-demand scanning and real-time scanning are different ...though they may use the same database! Usually the on demand scanner catches more malware than the real-time scanner. Also, sometimes the real-time scanners of some AVs cannot scan archieves ...whereas the on-demand version can.

It differs from AV to AV.

[Nirvana 4]

Well how do I enable the Real monitoring in NAV

Now thats called "Enable Auto Protect" in NAV's settings.

[Arun 795]

Visual Task Tips

What is Visual Task Tips?

Visual Task Tips is a lightweight shell enhancement utility. It provides thumbnail preview image for each task in the Windows Taskbar, like in the upcoming Microsoft Windows Vista. Visual Task Tips is a quite simple utility. Just download and install it. By using Visual Task Tips you will significantly increase your workflow productivity. Yes, it's absolutely free for non-commercial use.

NOTE: Windows XP required to run Visual Task Tips.

[Arun 795]

99 Commands the Windows XP Command prompt can run.

Here is a list of commands that you can run off from the Run Command prompt in XP:

Go to Start Menu > Run… and type in the command to run

Application Name = Command

Accessibility Controls = access.cpl

Add Hardware Wizard = hdwwiz.cpl

Add/Remove Programs = appwiz.cpl

Administrative Tools = control admintools

Automatic Updates = wuaucpl.cpl

Bluetooth Transfer Wizard = fsquirt

Calculator = calc

Certificate Manager = certmgr.msc

Character Map = charmap

Check Disk Utility = chkdsk

Clipboard Viewer = clipbrd

Command Prompt = cmd

Component Services = dcomcnfg

Computer Management = compmgmt.msc

Date and Time Properties = timedate.cpl

DDE Shares = ddeshare

Device Manager = devmgmt.msc

Direct X Control Panel (If Installed)* = directx.cpl

Direct X Troubleshooter = dxdiag

Disk Cleanup Utility = cleanmgr

Disk Defragment = dfrg.msc

Disk Management = diskmgmt.msc

Disk Partition Manager = diskpart

Display Properties = control desktop/desk.cpl

Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility = drwtsn32

Driver Verifier Utility = verifier

Event Viewer = eventvwr.msc

File Signature Verification Tool = sigverif

Findfast = findfast.cpl

Folders Properties = control folders

Fonts = control fonts

Fonts Folder = fonts

Free Cell Card Game = freecell

Game Controllers = joy.cpl

Group Policy Editor (XP Prof) = gpedit.msc

Hearts Card Game = mshearts

Iexpress Wizard = iexpress

Indexing Service = ciadv.msc

Internet Properties = inetcpl.cpl

IP Configuration = ipconfig

Java Control Panel (If Installed) = jpicpl32.cpl

Java Application Cache Viewer (If Installed) = javaws

Keyboard Properties = control keyboard

Local Security Settings = secpol.msc

Local Users and Groups = lusrmgr.msc

Logs You Out Of Windows = logoff

Microsoft Chat = winchat

Minesweeper Game = winmine

Mouse Properties = control mouse

Mouse Properties = main.cpl

Network Connections = control netconnections

Network Connections = ncpa.cpl

Network Setup Wizard = netsetup.cpl

Notepad = notepad

Nview Desktop Manager (If Installed) = nvtuicpl.cpl

Object Packager = packager

ODBC Data Source Administrator = odbccp32.cpl

On Screen Keyboard = osk

Opens AC3 Filter (If Installed) = ac3filter.cpl

Password Properties = password.cpl

Performance Monitor = perfmon.msc

Performance Monitor = perfmon

Phone and Modem Options = telephon.cpl

Power Configuration = powercfg.cpl

Printers and Faxes = control printers

Printers Folder = printers

Private Character Editor = eudcedit

Quicktime (If Installed) = QuickTime.cpl

Regional Settings = intl.cpl

Registry Editor = regedit

Registry Editor = regedit32

Remote Desktop = mstsc

Removable Storage = ntmsmgr.msc

Removable Storage Operator Requests = ntmsoprq.msc

Resultant Set of Policy (XP Prof) = rsop.msc

Scanners and Cameras = sticpl.cpl

Scheduled Tasks = control schedtasks

Security Center = wscui.cpl

Services = services.msc

Shared Folders = fsmgmt.msc

Shuts Down Windows = shutdown

Sounds and Audio = mmsys.cpl

Spider Solitare Card Game = spider

SQL Client Configuration = cliconfg

System Configuration Editor = sysedit

System Configuration Utility = msconfig

System File Checker Utility = sfc

System Properties = sysdm.cpl

Task Manager = taskmgr

Telnet Client = telnet

User Account Management = nusrmgr.cpl

Utility Manager = utilman

Windows Firewall = firewall.cpl

Windows Magnifier = magnify

Windows Management Infrastructure = wmimgmt.msc

Windows System Security Tool = syskey

Windows Update Launches = wupdmgr

Windows XP Tour Wizard = tourstart

Wordpad = write

[linuxguy 0]

only 99?

[Arun 795]

obviously there are a lot more, but some of the useful ones. Anyway, here's some more I could find...

Accessibility Wizard = accwiz

Control Panel = control

Files and Settings Transfer Tool = migwiz

Help and Support = helpctr

HyperTerminal = hypertrm

Internet Connection Wizard = icwconn1

Internet Setup Wizard = inetwiz

IP Configuration (Display Connection Configuration) = ipconfig /all

IP Configuration (Display DNS Cache Contents) = ipconfig /displaydns

IP Configuration (Delete DNS Cache Contents) = ipconfig /flushdns

IP Configuration (Release All Connections) = ipconfig /release

IP Configuration (Renew All Connections) = ipconfig /renew

IP Configuration (Refreshes DHCP & Re-Registers DNS) = ipconfig /registerdns

IP Configuration (Display DHCP Class ID) = ipconfig /showclassid

IP Configuration (Modifies DHCP Class ID) = ipconfig /setclassid

Malicious Software Removal Tool = mrt

Microsoft Access (if installed) = access.cpl

Microsoft Chat = winchat

Microsoft Excel (if installed) = excel

Microsoft Frontpage (if installed) = frontpg

Microsoft Movie Maker = moviemk

Microsoft Paint = mspaint

Microsoft Powerpoint (if installed) = powerpnt

Microsoft Word (if installed) = winword

Microsoft Syncronization Tool = mobsync

Netmeeting = conf

Notepad = notepad

Outlook Express = msimn

Paint = pbrush

Phone Dialer = dialer

Pinball Game = pinball

Remote Access Phonebook = rasphone

Remote Desktop = mstsc

System Information = msinfo32

TCP Tester = tcptest

Tweak UI (if installed) = tweakui

Windows Address Book = wab

Windows Address Book Import Utility = wabmig

Windows Backup Utility (if installed) = ntbackup

Windows Media Player = wmplayer

Windows Messenger = msmsgs

Windows Picture Import Wizard (need camera connected) = wiaacmgr

Windows Version (to show which version of windows) = winver