WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 13)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

71. Running the System File Checker

To check the integrity of key system file, you can run SFC.EXE in the \\WINDOWS\\SYSTEM
directory It can restore corrupted files, check for changed or deleted system files, as well as restore default settings

72. System Information Utility with Win98

To check on various system configurations such as:
Hardware Resources and Conflicts
System File Checker
Registry Checker
Version Conflict Manager
Hardware Components and more
Save System Settings
Run the System Information utility from Start/Accessories/System Tools/System Information

73. Do you have a problem with your Video ? Always going in VGA MODE ?

This happens to everyone at some point of time or other and is most likely caused by some
application or third party utility overwriting your drivers files (or if you do not have had a right video driver to begin with). To verify exactly what gets loaded, follow these steps.

Open registry by going to
START-RUN and entering regedit. Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\hardware\\DeviceMap\\Video . In this value of Device\\Video0 points to a registry key that has the location of the video driver that Windows is configured to load.

for example:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\ videodriver \\Device0 . Navigate to this key. Check value of "InstalledDisplayDrivers" . Its value indicates whether driver was loaded or not. If the setting shows another registry location, a third-party driver may be getting loaded.

Check out Microsoft Knowledgebase article for more details:

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Before doing anything with registry, It is very important that you take a backup of registry by exporting it. Remember even a minor mistake in registry could render your system unusable or will cause it to stop or crash. XPTOOLS is not responsible for any such damage that may occur directly or indirectly as a result of your applying these changes. Don't try it if you are not sure. Use at your own risk.

74. Having trouble with MSDOS program ? Tips on troubleshooting.

I read a good article on Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows (Q314106) at
Microsoft knowledgebase website. One of the first thing to test when you are having problems with MS-DOS-based programs is the Windows Virtual DOS Machine (NTVDM) subsystem.

Open STARTRUN and enter command.com or cmd.exe. If you don't see a MSDOS windows coming up you of course have a problem.

Check the Config.nt and Autoexec.nt files in the SystemRoot%\\System32
folder for nonstandard settings.

Use a REM statement to remark out all entries except the following default entries:
Config.nt
---------
dos=high, umb
device=%SystemRoot%\\System32\\Himem.sys
files=20
Autoexec.nt
-----------
lh %SystemRoot%\\System32\\Mscdexnt.exe
lh %SystemRoot%\\System32\\Redir
lh %SystemRoot%\\System32\\Dosx
lh %SystemRoot%\\System32\\Nw16 (only if CSNW is installed)
lh %SystemRoot%\\System32\\Vwipxspx (only if CSNW is installed)
The registry entries that are associated with the NTVDM subsystem are:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager\\Environment
This key stores the environment variables from the Config.sys and Autoexec.bat files for use in
Windows.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\ VirtualDeviceDrivers
This key stores the device drivers that are used in an NTVDM session. Windows Setup creates these entries when a device driver is installed.

Read the article at Troubleshooting MS-DOS-Based Programs in Windows (Q314106) for complete details as I am simply repeating what's already available in the article.

75. Create your own popup menu in TASK BAR

This is not a registry tweak or anything big at all but may still be helpful to some. Remember what happens when you click on START button. You see a popup window coming up. You can create your own popup window other than START MENU in taskbar. Put down shortcuts to all applications that you want to see in your popup in a folder.

Then you right click on taskbar->toolbars->new toolbar->
and select the new folder.

76. Change default directory of Windows Explorer

If you are one of those who are annoyed by Windows Explorer always opening my documents folder by default, here is a solution.

In the properties of explorer or explorer shortcut which you access by left click you enter this in the end: /n,/e,c: After this , it look like : %SystemRoot%explorer.exe /n,/e,c: .
You can change C: to anything you want !! .

77. How to avoid autoplay of CD ? Way I like best.

Hey this time no registry trick even though there are ways in registry to do it. In earlier operating systems only those CD that had autorun.inf file in their root directory were able to execute on its own but with advent of WINDOWS XP it has become possible with just about anything.

Well sometimes it is good but there are other times when you want to avoid this part of automation. What would I do.

Simply press SHIFT key when you enter a CD in your CD drive. It won't Auto play. For those of you, who do want a registry hack. Here it is: Open Registry and navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\policies\\Explorer]
and look for key "NoDriveTypeAutoRun" and set its value to 185 (decimal).

This would stop autoplay.

78. Clean TCP/IP stack may be your solution

One of things that has improved a lot is the Windows ability to detect and connect to Internet But I still get into situations where (specially with my NAT and consistent testing of new ideas and tricks) that I end up correcting the TCP/IP stack.

I got another IBM computer day before yesterday and I got into trouble again. Well one quick command that you can try out to rebuild the TCPIP stack is by means of using netsh network command shell. This is mentioned on my list of tools page and I would be
describing its capability in great detail whenever I get some free time. But for now try this command netsh int ip reset mynetsh.log .

This would rebuild your TCP/IP stack and a log of activities would be created in mynetsh.log (by the way you can give any name to log file as long as you do give some name).

79. Secure your privacy by cleaning pagefile.

I read about this tweak a long time ago and even found out couple of ways of achieving the same
results but wasn't sure of the importance. But you know what, there is reason for everything. Assume your are working on computer where you don't really own the computer or is shared with someone else.

Do you want maintain privacy and avoid other know what you were doing etc. Then this tweak
may be of interest to you. Go to Control panel Administrative tools, local security policy.

Then goto local policies ---> security options.

Then change the option for "Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile"

80. Gain temp access Administrative privileges if not logged administrator.

I must be telling you one thing. In most of the cases where Windows XP is installed on a personal computer, users generally have access to administrative account. But you know, it is not in your best interest to log on as administrator for all your computing needs.

I must advise you to create a normal user account as well. But what if you are logged in as normal user and happen to download/install some software application that would need administrative privileges Here is the solution.

Simply right click on the executable and select run as. You would see a window poping up. Here you can provide one of the userid/password that would have admin privileges That's all you need to run that program with administrative privileges.

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 12)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

61. How to verify XP software you bought is OEM/ UPGRADE/ RETAIL?

I am sure we all have noticed Microsoft product marketing strategy. Whenever they launch any new product line,there are various flavors of it available right from day one. Some are given adjectives like UPGRADE version or FULL, others RETAIL v/s OEM and then of-course we have various categories of the product like HOME, PRO , SERVER , ADVANCED SERVER etc etc.

Well ever wondered what you bought is same as what was advertised ? How to tell the difference.

Here comes the help.

Look for a file called Setupp.ini that is present on your Windows XP CD and double click on it and browse its content.

There is a field called PID=. This PID is what would tell us exactly what we have got.

First 5 bytes of PID decide whether (it is OEM or RETAIL or is an UPGRADE ) and last three digits determine what kind of CD KEY will it accept.

Here are some of the typical PID values:
Retail = 51882 335
Volume License = 51883 270
OEM = 82503 OEM

62. Extremely powerful tool in Microsoft XP Operating System.

Have you heard of group policy editor ? This is one of the most powerful tool that Microsoft XP comes bundled with that most of us don't even know about. I recently discovered it by accident. Learn more about it at Group Policy Editor section of this site but in brief it can be used to carry out powerful customizations and performance tuning of your system.

Go to START-RUN and enter gpedit.msc
Have tendency to forget passwords ? Want a solution that will help you get back in business ?
Most of us have a common tendency of forgetting passwords. If you don't every forget anything, I envy you and this may not be of much use to you but for most of us, this may be a life saver.

If you're running Windows XP Professional as a local user in a workgroup environment, you can create apassword reset disk by following instruction as shown below:

Go to START-CONTROL PANELUSER ACCOUNTS. Then click your account name and further on in RELATED TASKS, click PREVENT A FORGOT PASSOWRD.

A wizard would come up, follow instructions and you have your password reset disk ready. IMPORTANT NOTE: As it goes with things like password, make sure that you keep this disk at secure location else you risk tress passing with your user account.

63. What to do with "the system has recovered from a serious error......" error?

Whenever Windows XP encounters a problem (that it thinks is serious even if you did not do anything unusual) it creates a dump file.

Next time you reboot, you most likely see this error message.

Clicking on more information shows error signature and other clumsy details.

Typically minidump would be stored in \\WINDOWS\\MINIDUMP directory.

It is not so easy to decipher this information. Best thing to do is to go to Windows Online Crash Analysis site at http://oca.microsoft.com and submit report (or check status if you have already submitted the report).

You may need to signon with Microsoft .Net Passport and if you don't have you may need to create one by supply some basic information about yourself..

Following are some of actions that you can take to avoid this error from cropping up.
Temporarily disabling error reporting:

Right-clock on my computer, select properties, advanced tab, error reporting button - turn on the "no error reporting" check box and turn off the "but notify me" option.

Disable Virtual Memory:
Right-click on my computer, select properties, advanced tab, performance settings, advanced tab, virtual memory "change" button. Note down the current VM settings (system managed or any customized size.

Turn on the "no paging file" bullet, and press the set tab.

Delete the paging file:

Reboot. Verify that the option reads 0 kb for page file. Use folder options on control panel or explorer "tools" pulldown menu & go to "view" tab. Turn off check box to permit viewing of system files.

Now explorer on the root of C drive (or what ever drive letter you page file was set to use), should show a pagefile.sys entry. Delete this. You will get a warning message about this being a system file. Since you have disabled virtual memory, this entry is not being used. Delete it. Go empty the trash bin to make sure this entry is cleared.

Re-enable Virtual Memory:

Right-click on my computer, select properties, advanced tab, performance settings, advanced tab, virtual memory "change" button , turn on the system-managed or customized paging file with the same settings as you noted down earlier. Be sure to press the set button. Reboot and verify that the paging file is active.

Re-enable error reporting that was disabled earlier.

Reboot to verify that the repetitive error message has indeed "left the building"
IMPORTANT NOTE: Microsoft support team should contact you as soon as possible!

64. Installed Windows XP on the same volume as old OS?

I did this very same thing on my computer the first time I tried to install Windows XP Pro. Installation was carried out from within the old Windows 2000 environment and it did go well. I had chosen fresh install and ( that was the intention as I had bought a copy of WINDOWS XP PRO FULL VERSION and wanted to wipe out the old install...I do not believe in UPGRADE Versions!).

But when rebooted I saw multiple boot option and soon figured out that installation did not go as I had expected.....To clean it I had to go into boot.ini file and delete entry corresponding to Windows 2000. Also based on my experience of old directory structure, I had to manually delete those. I could easily remove the WINNT directory as it belonged to Windows 2000.

Difficult task was the program files directory as it has old as well as new stuff mixed up. I used date and timestamp sorting to figure out what was old and not needed but you be very careful here.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you remove a program file belonging to Windows by mistake, you may be heading for trouble !

65. NetMeeting does not open up quickly or not at all?

I did face this a couple of times when inviting someone for voice chat on MSN. If you have recently bought/installed the XP PRO on your PC (which had been the case with me) you may not have activated netmeeting. You would have to do that. Quickest would be to go to START-RUN and entering CONF and in the resultant screen, providing basic information about your self and your are done.

66. Reduce keystrokes by pressing CTRL key while entering in web addresses?

If you just type CNN and press CTRL+ENTER, it is as good as entering www.cnn.com!
IMPORTANT NOTE: To best of my knowledge it only works for .com addresses!

67. Why sending a file does not work in MSN messenger if NAT is installed ?

I have three computers connected to Internet via one that has WINDOWS XP installed on it. NAT works great and I like that. Problem is if you are using MSN messenger, you can not send a file to someone because that is sort of like point to point ftp protocol and does not work with local addresses over Internet But you can get remote assistance and if you have any problems read this tip on Microsoft Expert Zone:

68. Installing the Resource Kit

From the CD in the \\TOOLS\\RESKIT directory, you can install the Windows98 Resource Kit.
The following is an excerpt from a document included on the CD that lists all the programs that can be installed.

1. BATCH.EXE: Microsoft Batch Setup utility. Creates files for automated installation of Windows 98 and components.

2. CHDOSCP.EXE: Code Page Changer. Changes the Code Page used for MS-DOS-based
programs to match Windows 98 Regional Settings.

3. CHECKLINKS.EXE: Link Check Wizard. Finds and eliminates dead links and shortcuts.

4. CLIPTRAY.EXE: Clip Tray. Optimizes and manages the Clipboard.

5. FAT32WIN.EXE: Fat32 Conversion Information Tool.

6. INFINST.EXE: Windows 98 Inf installer Utility.

7. LFNBACK.EXE: Long Filename Backup Utility.

8. MINITEL .TTF Files. Minitel font emulation files for HyperTerminal.

9. NETMON: Network Monitor. Service for remote monitoring of network performance on Windows 98 client machines.

10. QUIKTRAY.EXE: Quick Tray. Organizes the icons in the Windows 98 system tray.

11. POLEDIT.EXE: System Policy Editor. Sets administrative policies to define configuration settings for individual users, individual computers, or groups of users.

12. PWLEDIT.EXE: Windows 98 Password List Editor.

13. REMOTREG: Microsoft Remote Registry. Service for remotely viewing and editing the Registry on Windows 98 client machines.

14. RPCPP: Remote Procedure Call Print Provider. Service for administering network printers from Windows 98 machines.

15. SNMP Agent: Windows 98 SNMP network protocol agent.

16. TEXTVIEW.EXE: Text file viewer. Quickly displays the contents of text files.

17. TIMETHIS.EXE: Time This. Scripting tool that times how long it takes for the system to execute a given command.

18. TWEAKUI.EXE: Power Toy. Enhances and customizes the Windows 98 desktop.

19. TZEDIT.EXE: Time Zone Editor. Creates and edits time zone entries for the Date/Time icon in Control Panel.

20. USBVIEW.EXE: USB Viewer. USB Device information and troubleshooting tool.

21. WAITFOR.EXE: Scripting tool that causes the computer to wait for a signal sent over the network.

22. WHERE.EXE: Command-line tool that reports the location of a specified file on the hard disk.

23. WINDIFF.EXE: File and Directory comparison. Compares the contents of files or directories and reports differences.

24. WINSET.EXE. Command-line/scripting tool that sets global environment variables for Windows 98.

25. WSHADMIN.HLP: Windows Scripting Host Administrator's Guide. Guide to running scripts and designing applications for Windows Scripting Host.

69. Increasing Drive Performance

You can likely increase your Hard Drive or CD ROM performance by:

Opening up the Device Manager
Double click on the CD or Hard Drive
Click on the Settings tab
If you have a DMA box that is not grayed out, check that box
Reboot when prompted When Win98 starts again, see if that box is still checked.

This is especially beneficial with the newer UDMA drives which are supported by Win98
This will also greatly reduce CPU utilization during hard drive activity.

70. Configuring for Single Click

One of the configuration changes you can make with Win98 is to have the mouse only need a single click to open programs or shortcuts.

To make this change:
Open any folder, the Explorer or My Computer
Select View / Folder Options
Check Custom, based on settings you choose
Click on the Settings button
The last section, Click items as follows allows you to configure Win98 for single click

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 11)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

56. Get back to old days, see the file attributes in Windows Explorer

I have noticed that in Windows Explorer, when you click on the detailed mode, you do not see the file attributes any more. This used to be there in previous versions of Windows (Well in office, I still use Windows 95 and Windows Explorer out there shows the file attributes).

If you want to enable this setting, do this:

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced] and look for key "ShowAttribCol". You may not find it there if this is your first time.

In this case, create a new DWORD key "ShowAttribCol" and set its value to 1 to enable it.

57. Stop a user from changing Start Menu

This can be considered a security tip. If you want to restrict modifications to Start menu, do the
following:

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\Explorer]
and look for key "NoChangeStartMenu".

Set its valueto 1 to enable it to stop users from changing the Start Menu.

58. Control Scrolling or Cascading behavior of Start Menu

If there are more items in Start-Program menu than can be shown in a single screen, then windows has to do either scrolling or cascading effect to display rest of the items. You can tell Windows what to do by doing this:

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows
\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer\\Advanced] and look for key "StartMenuScrollPrograms".

You may not find it there if this is your first time. In this case, create a new STRING key "StartMenuScrollPrograms" and set its value to "YES" to enable scrolling or "NO" for the cascading effect.

59. Want to remove shared documents folder from My Computer window ?

Microsoft has done a fabulous job in the making of Windows XP. But least to say, no two people are alike. Some of the default features that Microsoft thought was good may not be liked by you at all. I have read various newsgroups and chats and one thing I noticed is that some don't like my shared documents folder option. If you are one of that, here is a trick to remove it.Open registry editor by going to START-RUN and entering regedit.

Once in registry, navigate to key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ SOFTWARE \\ Microsoft \\ Windows \\ CurrentVersion \\ Explorer \\ MyComputer \\ NameSpace \\ DelegateFolders You must see a sub-key named {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c5-5595fe6b30ee}.

If you delete this key, you have effectively removed the my shared documents folder.

60. Want to have more options in the Add/Remove program list

All programs that are available on your Windows XP system are not available for removal. For
example wordpad. I mean you don't want to remove wordpad from Add/Remove program list, but that serves just as an example.

So why are some programs in the list and some not. Its not a game of Random numbers. There many a few unique methods through which we can control what appears on list and what does not.

If you have installed Windows in C: drive , Go to C:\\WINDOWS\\inf (substituting the correct drive letter for your version of Windows) and open the sysoc.inf file.

File contents looks like this: See the components that have word HIDE as second last item on the row.

This hide tells system to not to display those items/apps in the Add/Remove program list.

If you want to have this item in list, simply replace it with blank. I think you understand what am I saying

[Version]
Signature = "$Windows NT$"
DriverVer=07/01/2001,5.1.2600.0
[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7
Games=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,games.inf,,7
AccessUtil=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,accessor.inf,,7
CommApps=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,communic.inf,HIDE,7
MultiM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,multimed.inf,HIDE,7
AccessOpt=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,optional.inf,HIDE,7
Pinball=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,pinball.inf,HIDE,7
MSWordPad=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wordpad.inf,HIDE,7
ZoneGames=zoneoc.dll,ZoneSetupProc,igames.inf,,7
[Global]
WindowTitle=%WindowTitle%
WindowTitle.StandAlone="*"

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 10)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

47. Hate LAN cable is unpluged

Right Click on "Start" Menu
Click "Properties" Tab
Click "Taskbar" Tab
Click "Hide inactive icons" if not Checked
Click on "Customize" Button
Click the Notification item you want to change under Current Items
Select "Always Hide" behaviour under the Behavior column
Click "Ok" and then click "Apply".

48. Not sure of website address and want to try out all possible options ?

Most of the computer users would choose to type less if they are given such an option. Problem is for many of us, to find that option itself is challenging enough! Anyway I am talking to those folks who don't have habit of typing complete domain names and want the computer/Internet to do the job.

Here are some of the registry changes that can widen your search domain.. If in Internet options, Display result and go to most likely site or just go to most likely site is enabled, you can type only the domain root in the Address box and Internet Explorer attempts to locate the correct Web site by searching different domain types.

For example, if you type "Microsoft" in the Address box,Internet Explorer
searches the domain types in the Autoscan list until a domain name match is found (in this case,
www.microsoft.com).

By default, Internet Explorer searches the following domain types when the Autoscan Common Root Domains option is enabled:..com, .org, .net, .eduTo add a domain type to the Autoscan search list, add the string value "" with a value of "%s." and a string value "" with a value of "www.%s." (without quotation marks), where is the next available number and is the domain type, under the following

registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Url Template
For example, if you want to add the .gov domain type and there are already 7 domain types listed, add a string value "8" with a value of "%s.gov" and a string value "9" with a value of www.%s.gov.

NOTE: The order in which Internet Explorer searches domains is based on the string value.For
example, the domain type associated with string value 1 is searched before the domain type
associated with string value 2.

49. Attention LAPTOP Users ! Do your eyes a favor, use Clear Type Fonts.

Hi everyone! May be you have already realized the importance of clear type font by now. A new
feature that must be a boon to all those people who are spending their life staring these monitor
screens!.

After years of research, it has been noticed that Clear Type Fonts are best way to prolong
you Laptop computer experience. Windows XP comes equipped with it and you can change the
setting to use Clear Type fonts. What is not so simple to do is to even change the Welcome (logon) screen to used Clear Type. I have got hand of a tip that might be of help to you installing clear type fonts at logon screen. Save following to a .reg file and import it in registry.

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Control Panel\\Desktop]
"FontSmoothing"="2"
"FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002

[HKEY_USERS\\.DEFAULT\\Control Panel\\Desktop]
"FontSmoothing"="2"
"FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002

For those of you who do not know how to use clear type fonts in normal session here are the
instructions: Right click on at any free area of the desktop and go to appearance tab of Display
Properties.

Click on effects and check the box saying "use following methods to smooth edges of
screen fonts" and select clear type.

50. Fine tune Internet connection speed: Tip on changing QoS parameter.

This tweak deals with QoS parameter manipulation. There have been some confusion as to what can be achieved in real terms by changing the QoS parameter. Microsoft has finally released an article correcting describing the behavior of QoS parameter. In
brief though, this tweak would only work on QoS aware programs and rest of the programs would simply ignore them.

Networking Quality of Service (QoS) refers to a variety of techniques that prioritize one type of traffic or program when these operate across a network connection rather than
relying solely on "best effort" connectivity.

Please click on how to change QoS parameter article using Group Policy Editor (GPEDIT.MSC).By default, programs can reserve up to an aggregate bandwidth of 20 percent of the underlying link speed on each interface on an end computer. If the program that
reserved the bandwidth is not sending enough data to utilize it completely, the unused portion of the reserved bandwidth is available for other data flows on the same host. This default parameter can be changed.

51. Further fine tune Internet access speed: Tip on improving DNS resolution.

Internet browsing is such an exciting and easy experience now a days that we have almost forgotten the amount of work that goes behind the scene to make this all happen. We only feel bad if we can't find something easily or have to wait for a long time (I have heard many people saying WWW stands for world wide wait not too long ago!!!) Well with changes in technology and falling prices we have far better hardware and software to do this job but fruits of fine tuning have always been great and would continue to remain so.

One of the things that should happen before Internet connection would go
through is DNS resolution.DNS stands for Domain Name Service.

Even though XP does a fine job of handling DNS resolution, you may still gain by increase the DNS Cache size. To do this you would have to add following entries in registry.

Save what is written below in say "dnstuning.reg" file and import it in REGISTRY but opening registry editor and going to IMPORT option from top menu.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\Dnscache\\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d

52. How to use program aliases ?

You can use program aliases to run actual program. Well there are ways to hide actual program
name.

Not sure what's the good use for this tip but here it is anywayIn regedit, navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft \\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\App Paths].

To create a new alias, create a sub-key, and call it the name of the alias you wish to create. Then modify the Default value of the sub-key to equal the fully qualified path and filename of the application you want to be launched.

53. Disable MSN Messenger from loading OE

I thought I had this covered in one of my tips. Actually, I told you indirectly about how to uninstall MSN messenger and also how to stop from loading it at boot time. But recently I saw few mails/posts where people want to keep the MSN messenger , but do not want it to run whenever Outlook Express is executed.

For these folks here are a couple of solution. There is a Microsoft knowledgebase article on this as well. Visit How to Prevent Windows Messenger from Running on a Windows XP-Based Computer (Q302089) and learn more.

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software \\Policies \\Microsoft]. Create a new key by the name "Messenger" and then within that another key by the name "Client". This is equivalent to creating and navigation to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software \\Policies
\\Microsoft\\Messenger\\Client]. Within this create a DWORD key by the name "PreventRun" and set its value to 1. Quit registry and even though not a must, its a good idea to reboot.

One more way of doing the same without sacrificing run time is to go to C:\\Program Files and
rename Messenger directory to something else e.g. MessengerOff. This works as well.
54. Change alignment of Start Menu panel.

This is a customizing tip. If you have noticed, START MENU PANEL has all the entries aligned to left.

Well that's not a cause of concern but may be you are one of those who want it to be the other way, say you want it to align to right. This can be done by a quick registry tweak. In regedit, navigate to

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Control Panel \\Desktop] and look for key "MenuDropAlignment". Set its value to 1 to align the menu entry to right or if you did not like the idea of entries aligned to right, set it back to 0 for align back to left which is the Default XP behavior.

55. Customize windows explorer's Default search

This is a customizing tip. If you want to customize your windows explorer search here are some tips.

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer

and look for following keys
"CaseSensitive"
"IncludeSubFolders"
"SearchHidden"
"SearchSlowFiles"
"SearchSystemDirs"

Key names are self revealing. If you want a CaseSensitive search set its value to 1 else 0. This is the technique, if you prefer to enable any of the above feature, set its value to 1 else set it back to 0.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Before doing anything with registry, It is very important that you take a backup of registry by exporting it. Remember even a minor mistake in registry could render your system unusable or will cause it to stop or crash. XPTOOLS is not responsible for any such damage that may occur directly or indirectly as a result of your applying these changes. Don't try it if you are not sure. Use at your own risk

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 9)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

41. Enable 5th zone setting in Internet Explorer 6.0

I read about this a few days ago. There a fith setting in Internet Explorer 6 called my computer which is diabled by default. If you want to enable this, Open registry by going to START-RUN and entering regedit and then navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\InternetSettings\\Zones\\0] and look for the data value called "flags".

Its default value is 33 ("Flags"=dword: 0X00000021 ) . Chage its value 1 and reboot. Now you should see an option called my computer in Internet Explorer 6 Zone settings.

42. Are you annoyed by XP ask for registration again & again ?

First of all, this trick must only be used by those who have legal copy of XP and are troubled by
registrations reminders every now and then. Before you begin, make sure PC must not be connected to the network.

During XP setup answer no when setup asks you to use Windows Dynamic Update.
Dynamic update connects to Microsoft to register XP. Once the installation is completed, reboot to Safe mode.

Go to Windows Explorer and rename %systemroot%\\System32\\regwizc.dll and
%systemroot%\\System32\\Dllcach\\regwizc.dll to regwizc.dll.bak or whatever.

By renaming the regwizc DLL, it blocks other windows components from registering XP to Microsoft.

Now, navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\WindowsNT\\CurrentVersion]
and look for the data key "RegDone" and set its value to 1 to make XP believe that its registered .

Change the IE home page to something besides Microsoft's web site.
Reboot to Normal mode and reconnect your nic card before the XP Windows GUI loads.

43. Turn off the descriptions that poppup

If you want to turn off the descriptions that poppup when you place the cursor above desktop icons or Explorer objects, you can use the following registy hack: .

Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion
\\Explorer\\Advanced] and look for the data key "ShowInfoTip" and set its value to 0 to disable it.

In future if you want to enable it again, simply change it back to 1 .

44. Disable XP warning on low disk space ?

XP warns you on three different occassions with messages related to low disk space.
when this is true : 80 MB <>

when this is true : 50 MB < free disk space < 80 MB The following alert displays for 30 seconds,
every four hours, twice per session: You are running very low on disk space on [drive]. To free space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click here.

when this is true : 0 MB <>

To free space on this drive by deleting old or unnecessary files, click here.

Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\

CurrentVersion\\Policies\\Explorer] and look for the data key "NoLowDiskSpaceChecks" and set its value to 1 to disable low disk space check

45. Improve system performance by disabling last access/update feature

NTFS file system in XP maintains liast access/update details for each file and directory. This
information is useful sometimes but for an average user this may not be of much use most of the
times.

Doing this takes considerable resources and as such it may make sense to diable it. Even after
disabling it you still have access to last modified info which would still be available. To disable lass access update feature, do as follows:

Navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\FileSystem] and look
for the data key "NtfsDisableLastAccessUpdate" and set its value to 1 to disable lass access update feature.

46. How to enable/disable command prompt extension ?

NTFS file system in XP maintains liast access/update details for each file and directory. This
information is useful sometimes but for an average user this may not be of much use most of the
times. Doing this takes considerable resources and as such it may make sense to diable it. Even after disabling it you still have access to last modified info which would still be available. To disable lass access update feature, do as follows:

Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Command Processor] and look for the data key "EnableExtensions" and set its value to 1 to enable command prompt extension or 0 to disable this feature.

You can enable/disable the extensions for the command shell you are in by issuing the following
commands:

cmd /y disables command extensions for this cmd session
cmd /x enables command extensions for this cmd session

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 8)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

31. Adding Microsoft Fax or Windows Messaging

If you want to install Microsoft Fax or Windows Messaging, these don't normally show up as options.

They are on the Win98 CD in the Tools\\Oldwin95\\Message\\US directory.
Run WMS.EXE to install Windows Messaging Run AWFAX.EXE to install Microsoft Fax

32. Right Mouse Click and the Start Menu Programs

A new way you can use the Right Mouse click with Win98 are with the programs listed in the Start Menu and the menus below it.

You can now Delete, Rename, Cut, Copy, Sort, Drag Shortcuts to the desktop and more.
You can even move them to different parts of the Start Menu.

33. Changing the Names of the Programs on the Quick Launch Toolbar

In case you want to change the name that gets displayed when you hover your mouse over the icons in the Quick Launch Toolbar, the icon names can be changed in c:\\windows\\application\\microsoft\\internet explorer\\quick launch

34. ScanReg

Windows98 has a DOS mode registry scanning program
Several switches can be used with this program
/BACKUP - Backup the registry and related system configuration files.
/RESTORE - Choose a backup to restore.
/OPT - Optimizes the Registry by removing wasted space. This will be done automatically by Win98 if there is more than 500K of wasted space
/FIX - Repair the registry.
/COMMENT="comment" :- Adds the specified comment to the CAB file while backing up.

35. How to enable/disable thumbnail cache

For performance reason, Windows explorer stores thumbnail of pictures in a cache. This is good but there is a problem. Some time caching mechanism would show incorrect pictures just because update process is not instantaneous.

If you want to have thumbnail pictures refreshed every time (mind you, this would be an additional load on your CPU resources), do this:

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer \\Advanced] and look for key "DisableThumbnailCache".

You may not find it there if this is your first time. In this case, create a new DWORD key
"DisableThumbnailCache" and set its value to 1 to disable caching mechanism.

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36. Disable Default CD Burning capability

If you have a good CD burning software, you may want to disable the CD burning capability. There are couple of ways to, do this:

REGISTRY METHOD:

In regedit, navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft file://Windows//CurrentVersion
\\Policies\\Explorer] and look for key "NoCDBurning". You may not find it there if this is your first time.

In this case, create a new DWORD key "NoCDBurning" and set its value to disable it.

ALTERNATE METHOD:

Go to your windows explorer and locate the drive that corresponds to CD-RW drive. Right click on it and select properties. Within Properties window, go to Recording tab and you would see and option called "Enable CD Recording on this drive".

If it is checked , deselect it.

37. Securing your WINDOWS XP computer

You can provide added level of security to your WINDOWS XP System. This is called securing your Windows XP accounts database. You can store all information related to your accounts in a
encrypted form on a floppy disk.

What this would do is that if You do not have access to your floppy
disk, You can not access the system. I am not sure You realized what I just said ! Even if You know your userid/password, You will not be able to access the system unless and until You have this startup disk.

Process of generating the this secure startup floppy disk is simple. Go to START-RUN and type
syskey. You would see a window coming up. Click on Upgrade command button. You would see
another window poping up which will give You the option of storing the encrypted accounts database either locally or on your floppy disk. Choose floppy disk and click OK and let the process complete.

You are done.

Next time You reboot the computer and get to the logon prompt, make sure that You have the floppY disk available in A: drive else You can not log on.

38. How to disable images using Outlook express

This has been an issue to few folks. Basically what happens is that when your receive your email, you get lot of junk mail which are formatted with HTML etc. Some of them are not suitable to your taste but also take some time to load. There are some alternative ways to block the load of images but each has its advantage and disadvantages:

1) Disable images in IE as it also affects OE

2) If you're running a firewall with rules make a rule that blocks OE's access to port 80. That way it can't get the images it needs.

3) There is a utility called DetachXP. This program could be used to apply the blocking even though its primary aim is to allows you to access these blocked files in Outlook 2002, without editing the Windows Registry manually

39. How to restart Windows without restarting your computer

This one is again is. When you click on the SHUTDOWN button, make sure to simultaneous press SHIFT Button. If you hold the Shift key down while clicking on SHUTDOWN button, you computer would restart without restarting the Computer. This is equivalent to term"HOT REBOOT".

40. How to print content of directory

Here work around is to create a DOS batch file with command to print the dir content into your printer port (make sure you know what is your printer port, in general it is LPT1 but it could be USB001 if you have it connected to USB port, right click on the printer icon and go to port tab and figure this out first) and then creating a context menu access this batch functionality.

All right here are the instructions:

step 1:

Open a text editor, such as Notepad, and type the following lines into a new document: (assuming the
printer you wish to use is connected to printer port #1).
CD %1
DIR >LPT1
Save the two-line file into your Windows\\Command folder, and call it PRINTDIR.BAT.

step 2:

Find the file in Explorer, right click on it, and select Properties.
Click on the Program tab, turn on the Close on Exit option, choose Minimized from the Run list, and click Ok.

Next, run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) by going to START-RUN and type regedit and navigateto

[\\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\\Directory\\shell]. Select New from the Edit menu, and then select Key.

Type Print for the name of this new key, and press Enter. Highlight the new Print key, select New from the Edit menu, and then select Key again. Type command for the name of this new key, and press Enter. Double-click on the (default) value in the right pane, and type

file:///C:/Windows/Command/PRINTDIR.BAT (assuming that C:\\Windows\\ is your Windows folder).

From now on, when you right-click on a folder icon, you can click Print to print its contents. Note: this assumes that your printer is connected to the LPT1 port, which is true for most users. However, if your printer is connected over a network or you have more than one printer, you need to change LPT1 to the correct port.

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 7)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

26. Enable automatic path MTU size detection and improve Internet
throughput.

As stated on previous tip (Tip 52), MTP size plays an important role in deciding Internet speed. But its not so easy to determine the right value of MTU. For those of us who fall in this category and would prefer computer to find that for us, follow trick may work.

I can not say with confidence whether this would work across all network but it should and there is no harm in trying it out. Now before I do that let me tell you what this action will do. Applying this trick, you would ask computer to automatically find out the maximum MTU size possible in the connection path to a host.

This value could be different for different sites. I think this trick should pick the lowest common denominator across a
particular path. Typically If MTU size is not optimized, this job has to be done by a router which would mean a significant waste of time (small chunks adds to a considerable loss if you imagine that there are billions of packets involved across the whole Internet) resulting in poor throughout and congestion on cyber lanes.

All right this key is called EnablePMTUDiscovery.

Again this is a registry.Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigateto

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services
\\Tcpip\\Parameters\\Interfaces\\ ID for Adapter.

For this right click on right pane and add a key by thename EnablePMTUDiscovery. For this key you can add a DWORD boolean value of 0 or 1 with 1 being TRUE (value that enables auto detection).

Since we are trying this tweak, set to 1 and enable the TCP to attempt to discover the MTU size over the specific path to host. Microsoft has an interesting article on many similar tips However, there are situations where you might want to disable this feature.

For example, a laptop user that has a network adapter installed but is not connected to
their local LAN.

If you don't want this feature, you can disable it by:

1. Starting Regedit

2. Go to Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \\ System \\ CurrentControlSet \\ Services \\ VxD \\ DHCP

3. Add a DWORD entry with the name IPAutoconfigurationEnabled

4. Give it a value of 0x0

5. Restart the computer

This will disable Automatic Private IP Addressing but not DHCP

27. Adding Shortcuts to the Desktop

An easy way to add a shortcut of a program to the desktop is to:

1. Right click on the icon

2. Select Send To / Desktop as Shortcut

28. Adding Shortcuts to Menus

If you drag a shortcut to the Start Menu and drop it, you will get a shortcut on your Start Menu.
To add it to a Program group below the Start Menu, hover it there for a second or two and the group will expand.

You can then insert the shortcut into that Program Group.

A divider line will be displayed to let you know where you will be placing the shortcut.
To move a shortcut, left-click on it and move it to the new location

29. Gradient Fill Title Bars

If you have Win98 and are using at least 16 bit color, you can have a gradient fill for your title bars.

The effect is that your title bar gradually changes color from left to right.
To enable this:

1. Right click on an open area of the Desktop

2. Right-Click

3. Select Properties

4. Click on the Appearance tab

5. Pull down the Item list

6. Select Active or Inactive Title Bar

7. You can select Color and Color2 (only if you have 16 bit or higher color saturation)

Now your title bars will have a gradient fill

30. Installing the OEM Version Over Win95

Normally you can't install the OEM Version of Windows98 if you have an existing Win95 on your
system.

To get around this problem:

Boot the PC with the Windows 95 Emergency Startup Disk to the MS-DOS prompt but make sure your CD ROM drivers are loaded on the disk and have access to the CD_ROM drive.

Run the MS-DOS editor EDIT and create a dummy file NTLDR (no extension) in the root dir C:\\ In the Windows95 directory (usually C:\\WINDOWS), rename the file WIN.COM.
Start the Windows 98 Setup with: SETUP.EXE /NTLDR

You will be prompted for the directory to load Windows98 into, by default if you already have
Windows95 loaded and are upgrading, it will have c:\\windows.000 make sure you change it to
c:\\windows or it will load Win98 in another directory.

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 6)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

21. Improve computer performance by reducing EFS cache

Navigate to HKLM\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\NTFS\\EFS\\Parameters and set the parameter of EFSKCACHEPERIOD to a value between 2 and 30. default is 5. Value suggest the time in seconds the kernel will cache the session key for a user for a given file.

The Kernel will not validate the user credentials during this cache period. This has the net effect of faster access to encrypted files that may be opened several times during a given time period.This is helpful in kernel and user mode of the EFS (encrypting file system) as it provides quicker access to frequently use components.

Similarly navigate to HKLM\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\EFS and set the value of KeyCacheValidationPeriod to a value in units of second from 1 minute to 1 day (60 to 86400).

Microsoft has an interesting article on this at Registry Keys Used to Tune EFS Caching (Q278256).

Read it for complete details

22. Customize your Start Menu setting and preferences

You can open group policy editor (gpedit.msc) and go to User Configuration \\ Administrative
Templates \\ Start Menu and Taskbar and set a variety of preferences for your startmenu. Or if You want You can open registry editor and navigate to

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\Explorer and enable/disable various parameters by changing 1 to 0 and viceversa.

I am doing a cut/paste of list available at Microsoft site. Visit the site to get details on these registry values

Registry Value:"NoSimpleStartMenu"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuPinnedList"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMFUprogramsList"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMorePrograms"
Registry Value:"NoCommonGroups"
Registry Value:"GreyMSIAds"
Registry Value:"NoWindowsUpdate"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuMyMusic",
"NoSMMyPictures","NoFavoritesMenu","NoRecentDocsMenu"
Registry Value:"DisableMyPicturesDirChange", "DisableMyMusicDirChange",
"DisableFavoritesDirChange".
Registry Value:"NoSMMyDocs"
Registry Value:"DisablePersonalDirChange"
Registry Value:"NoRecentDocsMenu"
Registry Value:"MaxRecentDocs"
Registry Value:"ClearRecentDocsOnExit"
Registry Value:"NoFavoritesMenu"
Registry Value:"{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}" under
HKCU\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Policies\\NonEnum.
Registry Value:"NoNetworkConnections"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuNetworkPlaces"
Registry Value:"NoRecentDocsNetHood"
Registry Value:"NoSMHelp"
Registry Value:"NoFind"
Registry Value:"NoRun"
Registry Value:"MemCheckBoxInRunDlg"
234 Tips – Trick Windows Part 1
Registry Value:"NoResolveSearch"
Registry Value:"NoResolveTrack"
Registry Value:"ForceStartMenuLogoff"
Registry Value:"StartMenuLogoff"
Registry Value:"NoClose"
Registry Value:"NoStartMenuEjectPC"
Registry Value:"NoChangeStartMenu"
Registry Value:"NoSetTaskbar"
Registry Value:"NoInstrumentation"
Registry Value:"NoUserNameInStartMenu"

I read about this on Microsoft Web Site. Here is the link Policy Settings for the Start Menu in Windows XP (Q292504)

23. Set the low level hook time-out and stop certain programs from crashing

One of the things that you can do avoid some programs from becoming unstable is to set a low level hook timeout. There are a few programs which use this low level hook timeout. Setting a low value (in milliseconds) means that if the hooked program does not respond within timeout period, one that has set the hook would not become unstable or go in infinite wait but would kill itself saving windows resources and improving performance. Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering

REGEDIT and Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT USER\\Control Panel\\Desktop] and look for
"LowLevelHooksTimeout" in the right pane. Now set it to a small number in milliseconds for example a value of 3500 would mean 3.5 seconds.

24. Does it ask for password everytime you connect ?

Even though this is not a problem for me but there is a chance that it could be a problem for you.

Sometimes no matter what you do, Outlook Express forgets your password and asks you to enter it again each and every time you connect to your mail server.I have a solution that may work for you.

Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to HKEY_CURRRENT USER\\Software\\Microsoft and look for "Protected Storage System Provider".

There is a good chance that you will see this folder. If you have it. Simply delete it. More than likely, you have solved your problem .

25. Tuning up MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) to speed up Internet access.

This is an old one. I had tried it on Window 2000 as well. Now let me tell you one important fact
related with tuning. Value of MTU depends upon how fast a connection you have, what kind of
activities you perform (ask yourself a question. Are your a mild, average or high end user of Internet ?

To put it in other words, Do you download little or nothing, or are an average surfer or are Internet savvy individual and download everything from programs,apps,patches to watching Internet audio/video real-time content?) Depending upon who you are as a user and what kind of connection (modem,dsl,cable or in rare cases T1/T3), this tuning may have little to significant effect on your Internet experience.

All right MTU stand for Maximum Transmission Unit. Value of MTU decides the
size of Internet data packet. Bigger the size, more you can transfer. Analogy could be made with a bucket. If bucket is small, you can carry little but it would be no strain on your strength. Bigger the bucket, more you can carry but it strains your physical strength. (Well! Its not that simple but good enough to understand). Objective should be find a perfect balance which works for you.

I think maximum that you can put is as value of MTU is 1500 (but could be higher for your specific network) and it may not make sense making it smaller than 68.

Again this is a registry tweak unless and until you have a tweaking utility that can do it for you.Open

Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SYSTEM\\CurrentControlSet\\Services file://Tcpip//Parameters//Interfaces// ID for Adapter.

For this right click on right pane and add a key by the name MTU. For this key you
can add a DWORD value from 68 to 1500 (or higher value is certain cases). If you put less than 68, it will default to 68. If you put a value higher than 1500 or your Network permitted max, it will default to permitted max.

The MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) specifies the maximum transmission unit size of an interface, and is usually determined by negotiation at the link layer of the driver.

The upper level protocols normally optimize pack size for each medium.

Following table gives typical values of MTU in bytes:-

<><><><>

Network	Mbps Token Ring Mbits/Sec	Mbps Token Ring Mbits/Sec	FDDI	Ethernet	IEEE 802.3/802.2	PPPoE
Type	16	4				(WAN Miniport)
Windows XP	17914	4464	4352	1500	1492	1480
NT / 2000	17914	4464	4352	1500	1492	N/A

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at netwebpromoters@gmail.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 5)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

17. Change the text in START Button in task bar ?

In Windows XP Pro, you can change your Start button and you are not even restricted with 5 characters as it used to be the case in previous version of Windows but the process itself of modifiying the start button is a bit more tedious than what it used

1. First of all, make a backup of your explorer.exe This is one of the most important executables of your operating system and incase you make a mistake, you should have its backup to fall back on to !

You will see this file in C:\\Windows directory. Go there, make a copy and change its name to
something you remember like "explorerold.exe or explorer.old".

2. Download a freeware called ResourceHacker by going to 7. Reboot your computer as you wouldnormally do.

If you have followed the steps correctly, you should have new explorer by now.

18. Make autodisconnect work in Internet explorer ?

If You are having problem setting autodisconnect in Internet explorer 6 , here is a tip for You Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Services\\LanmanServer\\Parameters] and look for autodisconnect parameter. Change its value to whatever You want (in minutes).

Alternately You can try this from command prompt: net config server /autodisconnect:30 -to set the autodisconnect to 30 minutes. Microsoft have a detailed article dealing on this titled How
Autodisconnect Works in Windows NT and Windows 2000 (Q138365)

19. Do You want Windows to unload dll immediately?

Folks, I read about this a long time ago and my preliminary findings are that it works on XP as well even though I can not say how beneficial this trick is (or how damaging !). Also there might be some potential problems with a a few apps. But I would still provide it to You There is a way in registry for You to tell Windows OS to unload DLL,immediately as soon as its use is over.

Here is how to do that:

. Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Explorer] and look for AlwaysUnloadDLL parameter.

It may not be present by default. If not, add a key by the name AlwaysUnloadDLL and set it to value of 1. This would inform OS to unload the DLL files from memory immediately. This has its advantages and disadvantages. It may also crash some Microsoft applications (like Access)

20. Lock known dll's list and make computer a bit more safer

Folks, You may be wondering that I am talking about making your computer a bit more safer even though my very site was hacked on 1/14/2002. As it stands I have kept this site simple and I do not control the webhosting part. Anyway it is a good idea to keep your computer safe.

Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager] and look for ProtectionMode parameter. If its value is not 1 , set it to value of 1. On my computer default value is 1. Doing this will protect your list of known system dlls from being compromised.

To see what is present in your known DLL list, navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\System\\CurrentControlSet\\Control\\Session Manager\\KnownDLLs] and look in the right pane. I have not yet tried this but You may even try adding some other DLLs that You feel important and should be protected. This could be risky as I have not yet tried this myself.

warning :

---

All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

---

Mail me at netwebpromoters@gmail.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

to be. Anyways, gist of act is to modify your

WINDOWS XP TRICKS (Learn Part 4)

WINDOWS XP TRICKS

10. Customize logon prompt with your own word
This tip won't make your computer any faster but may help personalize your computer experience.

Open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\ Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\ Winlogon].

In right pane, look for key by the name "LogonPrompt". Set its value to whatever text you want to see displayed at login screen.

11. Where does Window's ProductId get stored ?

There are two places at least where ProductId gets stored. To see the first place, open Registry by going to START-RUN and entering REGEDIT and Navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\ Windows NT\\CurrentVersion].

In right pane, look for key by the name "ProductId". This is your Windows Product Id. Alternatively you can navigate

to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion] and still find same field with the name ProductId.

12. Using third part defrag utility ? Make it defrag all files

I read about this tip on web. If you are using a third party defrag utility, you can make it defrag all files.

Go to C:\\Windows\\Prefetch directory and removing/deleting layout.ini file.

13. Speedup boot time by improving NTFS check

CHKNTFS is the command used to set the AUTOCHK initiation count down time. You can reduce it from default 9 seconds to a much lower value say 4 seconds.

Go to command prompt and type CHKNTFS/T:4 This command would set the AUTOCHK initiation count time down to 4.

14. How to kill the IE About windows that popup from time to time

There is an Internet Explorer vulnerability to which allows some web sites to open a hidden popup tracking minimized window either upon your first visit or when you leave their web site or even when you close your browser while one of their web pages is still displayed.

They do this by using the little known "about:" browser built-in command into their HTML/DHTML/XML code. Sometimes this window Go undetected as these are not resizable as you come to expect of a typical window app.

If you do not have anything specific with www.about.com, there could be a registry tweak that you can do.

Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT.EXE) by going to START-RUN and type regedit and navigate to

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\ Internet
Settings\\ZoneMap\\ProtocolDefaults]

and add two DWORD keys"about" and "about:" and set its value to 4.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: Doing this tweak would mean that you would not be able to use the blank about page as your startup page. There is a workaround for this by adding it to your zone ...but I do not like it and hence not mentioning it here.

15. How to fix problems with master boot record

So what is Master Boot Record (MBR)? Master boot record is the first sector of the disk that is
accessed by you computer BIOS as soon as it boots up.

So what does it mean ? It means that your ability to boot to a particular operating system depends upon the correctness of Master Bood Record.

If you have ever installed two or more operating system, your ability to select an operating system is controlled by master boot record. Assume if you are not able to boot due to your dislike of the changes in boot loader process or corruption in MBR (btw, this could happen for a variety of reasons, right from virus to your own experiments with multi boot process.. I have seen this happening a lot on my PC since I have a dual cpu system with Mandrake 8.1 on one partition and Windows XP on another with Mandrake graphical Master Boot Menu ) you have to correct the master boot record.

Assuming you are in Windows XP, you have to put WINDOWS XP CD in your drive and make it
reboot next time in recovery console.

1. Simplest way to do this would be to would be to navigate to START-RUN and type D:\\i386\\winnt/cmdcons (D: is the CDROM drive in my computer) and let the process finish and reboot.

2. Once rebooted, system would prompt you to choose recovery console and chose it by entering
proper menu id number (by default should be 1). Once console is loaded do enter this command
FIXMBR /device/harddisk0 (where harddisk0 refers to C: drive where WINDOWS XP is installed by default).

This would fix your master boot record to default XP boot. By the way FIXMBR command is
only available from recovery console. What to know more about FIXMBR, visit Microsoft TechNet site If you have followed the instructions correctly, you are done.

16. Write a new partition boot sector to the system partition

Are you look for a way to correct the partition boot sector, here is a quick fix. You have to put
WINDOWS XP CD in your reboot the computer next time in recovery console. Here are the steps after you put your XP CD and boot into recovery console (Choose R for Recovery console when Windows XP setup disk starts)

1. Once console is loaded do enter this command FIXBOOT C:(where C: is the hard disk drive where WINDOWS XP is installed by default). To know more about FIXBOOT options, click here to visit Microsoft Technet site

If you have followed the instructions correctly, you are done.

warning :

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All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

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Mail me at netwebpromoters@gmail.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

Mistakes During Web Design Part 2

Mistakes During Web Design Part 2

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31. Make links visible: the visitor should be able to recognize what is clickable and what is not, easily. Make sure that your links have a contrasting color (the standard blue color is the optimal most of the times). Possibly also make them underlined.

32. Do not underline or color normal text: do not underline normal text unless absolutely necessary. Just as users need to recognize links easily, they should not get the idea that something is clickable when in reality it is not.

33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website. Clicked links that change color help the user to locate himself more easily around your site, making sure that he will not end up visiting the same pages unintentionally.

34. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.

35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users.

36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme. Design the color palette around your objectives (i.e. deliver a mood, let the user focus on the content, etc.).

37. Do not use pop ups: this point refers to pop ups of any kind. Even user requested pop ups are a bad idea given the increasing amount of pop blockers out there.

38. Avoid Javascript links: those links execute a small Javascript when the user clicks on them. Stay away from them since they often create problems for the user.

39. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.

40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether. If that is the case with your website make it shorter and improve the navigation structure.

41. No horizontal scrolling: while some vertical scrolling is tolerable, the same can not be said about horizontal scrolling. The most used screen resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768 pixels, so make sure that your website fits inside it.

42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website. Make sure that your links and texts do not contain spelling or grammatical mistakes.

43. If you use CAPTCHA make sure the letters are readable: several sites use CAPTCHA filters as a method of reducing spam on comments or on registration forms. There is just one problem with it, most of the times the user needs to call his whole family to decipher the letters.

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Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

Mistakes During Web Design Part 1

Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid

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There are several lists of web design mistakes around the Internet. Most of them, however, are the “Most common” or “Top 10” mistakes. Every time I crossed one of those lists I would think to myself: “Come on, there must be more than 10 mistakes…”. Then I decided to write down all the web design mistakes that would come into my head; within half an hour I had over thirty of them listed. Afterwards I did some research around the web and the list grew to 43 points.

The next step was to write a short description for each one, and the result is the collection of mistakes that you will find below. Some of the points are common sense, others are quite polemic. Most of them apply to any website though, whether we talk about a business entity or a blog. Enjoy!

1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!

2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.

3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.

4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.

5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).

6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.

7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).

8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.

9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.

10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.

11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.

12. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.

13. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: the smaller the number of steps required for the user to access your content, the better.

14. Make sure to include contact details: there is nothing worse than a website that has no contact details. This is not bad only for the visitors, but also for yourself. You might lose important feedback along the way.

15. Do not break the “Back” button: this is a very basic principle of usability. Do not break the “Back” button under any circumstance. Opening new browser windows will break it, for instance, and some Javascript links might also break them.

16. Do not use blinking text: unless your visitors are coming straight from 1996, that is.

17. Avoid complex URL structures: a simple, keyword-based URL structure will not only improve your search engine rankings, but it will also make it easier for the reader to identify the content of your pages before visiting them.

18. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers much more features.

19. Make sure users can search the whole website: there is a reason why search engines revolutionized the Internet. You probably guessed it, because they make it very easy to find the information we are looking for. Do not neglect this on your site.

20. Avoid “drop down” menus: the user should be able to see all the navigation options straight way. Using “drop down” menus might confuse things and hide the information the reader was actually looking for.

21. Use text navigation: text navigation is not only faster but it is also more reliable. Some users, for instance, browse the Internet with images turned off.

22. If you are linking to PDF files disclose it: ever clicked on a link only to see your browser freezing while Acrobat Reader launches to open that (unrequested) PDF file? That is pretty annoying so make sure to explicit links pointing to PDF files so that users can handle them properly.

23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML? Man, just give me the content!

24. Do not blend advertising inside the content: blending advertising like Adsense units inside your content might increase your click-through rate on the short term. Over the long run, however, this will reduce your readership base. An annoyed visitor is a lost visitor.

25. Use a simple navigation structure: sometimes less is more. This rule usually applies to people and choices. Make sure that your website has a single, clear navigation structure. The last thing you want is to confuse the reader regarding where he should go to find the information he is looking for.

26. Avoid “intros”: do not force the user to watch or read something before he can access to the real content. This is plain annoying, and he will stay only if what you have to offer is really unique.

27. Do not use FrontPage: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.

28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.

29. Make sure to include anchor text on links: I confess I used to do that mistake until some time ago. It is easier to tell people to “click here”. But this is not efficient. Make sure to include a relevant anchor text on your links. It will ensure that the reader knows where he is going to if he clicks the link, and it will also create SEO benefits for the external site where the link is pointing.

30. Do not cloak links: apart from having a clear anchor text, the user must also be able to see where the link is pointing on the status bar of his browser. If you cloak your links (either because they are affiliate ones or due to other reasons) your site will lose credibility.

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Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.

Computer Triks

Computer Triks

How to Change the Default Icon for Removable Drives.

you are bored seeing the default look of removable drives in Windows, here is a simple tutorial on how to change the default look. The Removable drive looks like this, without any customizations and its confusing if you have more than one drives connected to your PC.





The default look of Removable drives like USB pen drives, Memory Cards for phones and cameras can be changes using these 3 simple steps.

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1. First step is to find a good icon which will represent the removable drive. Make sure that the image has .ico extension.

2. Open Notepad. Type in whatever is given in the image.

Here Label denotes the text which you want to display in My Computer when the drive is connected and Icon represents the icon image name. Save this file as autorun.inf.

3. Copy both files (autorun.inf and Icon file) to your removable drive. You can make both files as hidden, if don’t want to see those files when you are connected to drive

Now unplug the drive and connect it back to USB and now you can see the effect of your customizations.

warning :

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All the Tricks which had shown in this site is just for Teaching and Learning purpose.use all tricks on your personal risk.

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Mail me at masteragarwal@yahoo.com to receive latest updates and source cods and be in touch.