Remove or modify Shortcut Arrow in windows and Vista

Would you prefer to display your shortcuts without the arrow in the bottom left hand corner? This tip will show you how to change the arrow icon or remove it completely To remove the shortcut arrows: Method 1: 1. Open your notepad or any script editor 2. Copy and paste the script below into you notepad and save the file with .vbs extension e.g noArrow.vbs, just save it to your desktop Option Explicit Dim objShell, strRoot, strRead, strDelete, strCreate strRoot = “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\lnkfile\IsShortCut” ‘ Create the Shell object Set objShell = CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”) strDelete = objShell.RegDelete(strRoot) WScript.Echo “Error No: ” & err.number & ” check ” & strRoot strDelete = null WScript.Quit 3. Double click your VBScript, then ‘OK’ the message box. To see the arrows disappear, simply logoff and logon again. Tadaaa!!!! The arrows disappear!!..hahaaaa Method 2: Open Registry editor Go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT Find piffile and lnkfile…………………….and just delete it. Reboot your computer. To Change the Icon: Open the key [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ Explorer\Shell Icons] and create a new string value, or modify the existing value, called ‘29′. Set it to equal the filename, including path, for the icon you want to use for the shortcut arrow. By setting this to a blank icon it has a similar effect to the removal method above, without the side effects. Restart Windows for the changes to take effect. Note: This tweak effectively changes the properties of shortcuts so they are no longer considered to be shortcuts by Windows, this may have some slight side effects, such as hot keys not working as before.

Unlock the supersecret Administrator account in Vista

Deep inside the bowels of Windows Vista, there's a secret Administrator account, and it's different from the normal administrator account you most likely have set up on your PC. This Administrator account is not part of the Administrator group. (Confused yet? You should be.) It's a kind of superadministrator, akin to the root account in Unix, and by default it's turned off and hidden. (In describing this hack, we'll always use the capital "A" for the secret Administrator account, and a lowercase "a" for a normal administrator account.) In versions of Windows before Windows Vista, the Administrator account wasn't hidden, and many people used it as their main or only account. This Administrator account had full rights over the computer. In Windows Vista, Microsoft changed that. In Vista, the Administrator account is not subject to UAC, but normal administrator accounts are. So the Administrator can make any changes to the system and will see no UAC prompts. Turning on the Administrator account is straightforward. First, open an elevated command prompt by typing cmd into the Search box on the Start menu, right-clicking the command prompt icon that appears at the top of the Start menu, then selecting Run as administrator -- or just use the shortcut you created in the previous hack. Then enter this command and press Enter: Net user administrator /active:yes From now on, the Administrator account will appear as an option on the Welcome screen, along with any user accounts you may have set up. Use it like any other account. Be aware that it won't have a password yet, so it's a good idea to set a password for it. If you want to disable the account and hide it, enter this command at an elevated command prompt and press Enter: Net user administrator /active:no

Make Internet Explorer Faster

This way is more useful for some people who have a dial up connection. This is work for both Dial up and ADSL connections it makes your internet explorer Browser loads web pages more faster. METHOD 1 1. click start > run 2. type regedit > enter 3. browse folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ InternetSettings 4. right click @ windows right > New > DWORD 5. type MaxConnectionsPerServer > you can set value (the higher the number, the more good speed you get, eg : 99) 6. create another DWORD >type MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server 7. then put a high value as mentioned above 8. then, restart IE, finished. METHOD 2 Dont automatically play animations or videos - Animations and videos are usually absolutely ample files to download. Absolutely often, in fact, I ascertain that I dont even wish to see them. How to make it: On the card bar, bang on Tools, again on Internet Options on the card that appears. A new window will arise alleged Internet Options. At the top there are six tabs. Bang on the one on the appropriate that says “Advanced.” Scroll down to the area that says “Multimedia.” This should be about halfway. Uncheck the two options beneath Multimedia that says “Play animations” and “Play videos.” Bang on the OK button to abutting the window, and restart Internet Explorer. Reduce the admeasurement of your page history - Your page history (the account of pages you get while youre accounting in a URL) takes up amplitude in anamnesis that is allocated to Internet Explorer. Freeing up that anamnesis makes your absolute arrangement run faster and makes it accessible for Internet Explorer to advance added anamnesis for apprehension pages, appropriately authoritative pages arise faster. How to do it: On the card bar, bang on Tools, again on Internet Options on the card that appears. A new window will arise alleged Internet Options. Towards the basal of the window should be a band that says “Days to accumulate pages in history:” After that is a box with a amount on it. Bang on the box, backspace to annul the absolute number, and blazon in a baby number. I usually use 1. Bang on the OK button to abutting the window, and restart Internet Explorer. Don’t automatically download images - The aspect of web pages that takes the longest time to download is images. If you about-face off this advantage and about-face on addition one, you can still get the accustomed anatomy of web pages, but after the cat-and-mouse for images to download. Usually, the a lot of advantageous advice is in argument form, anyway. How to do it: On the card bar, bang on Tools, again on Internet Options on the card that appears. A new window will arise alleged Internet Options. At the top there are six tabs. Bang on the one on the appropriate that says “Advanced.” Scroll down to the area that says “Multimedia.” This should be about halfway. Uncheck the advantage beneath Multimedia that says “Show pictures” and analysis the advantage that says “Show angel download placeholders.” Bang on the OK button to abutting the window, and restart Internet Explorer. Empty Temporary Internet Files binder if browser is closed - Doing this helps save a lot of harder drive space, and aswell makes surfing faster back your computer isn’t searching through so abounding pages to acquisition out if the adapted page is already in the cache. How to do it: On the card bar, bang on Tools, again on Internet Options on the card that appears. A new window will arise alleged Internet Options. At the top there are six tabs. Bang on the one on the appropriate that says “Advanced.” Scroll down to the area that says “Security.” This should be the basal section. Analysis the advantage that says “Empty Temporary Internet Files binder if browser is closed.” Bang on the OK button to abutting the window, and restart Internet Explorer. Dont save encrypted pages to disk - This has a bifold benefit. First, it saves your computer the time and accomplishment of extenuative pages to the Temporary Internet Files folder. Plus, it makes abiding that there’s no almanac on your harder drive of defended web pages, which are the ones that are acclimated for passwords and such things. How to do it: On the card bar, bang on Tools, again on Internet Options on the card that appears. A new window will arise alleged Internet Options. At the top there are six tabs. Bang on the one on the appropriate that says “Advanced. Scroll down to the area that says “Security.” This should be the basal section. Analysis the advantage that says “Don’t save encrypted pages to disk.” Bang on the OK button to abutting the window, and restart Internet Explorer.

Increasing the Vista Activation Period to 120 days.

Normally you get a grace period of 30 days before Vista insists that you activate, online or over the phone. However you can increase the period by running this command: slmgr.vbs -rearm The trick is to run the above command, just before it expires, rather than 3 times all at once.

Simpler Volume Control Window

When you open your Volume control window, then you will observe that there some options missing, and after you add them in the main panel, it becomes a lot bigger then your screen size. Specially if your resolution is 800 x 600, then in that case you can not see all the option, you need to scroll to see them all. Now to make it smaller and simpler, just press CTRL + S, and you will see a smaller, simpler volume control set. If you are not able to see that after pressing that shortcut, then try running the following command in the Run window. Type sndvol32 /s this will open the volume control set, as you want it. Enjoy!!!

Add "copy to" and "move to" options in right click in XP

It is hard to move or copy a file/s or folder/s to specific location. There is a option called "Send to" on context menu but it has some limitation. You can send content through it just few locations like.. My Documents, Floppy Disk etc. If You can add "Copy to" and "Move to" options on Right click(context menu) then it will increase your file/folder transfer facility. You can Copy and Move your content anywhere on your machine through Right click(context menu). I have described a registry trick following here. Copy-paste following text in notepad and save it with .reg extension. Then just merge/run it. You will get 2 new options on your Right click(context menu). Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers] [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Copy To] @="{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}" [HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\Move To] @="{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}"

Login with multiple ids at a time in GTalk or Google Talk

Hello Friends,As we all know about google talk, It is a messenger by Google and it is very light weight and easy to use. But we all also know that we can be online with only one one google id, But what if you want to online with multiple ids in Google Talk???Here is the way (trick) by which you can be online in multiple Google Talk instances and chat easily with anyone. Right click on your GTalk icon (On desktop) then select properties then just change Target value to “C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe” /nomutex means add /nomutex at the end without commas then press ok. Now you will see that you can open multiple Google Talk instances. If you like my posts then please comment on it...

Get Rid Of Windows Update “Restart” Option

Everybody of us these days enjoy the automatic updates by Microsoft. That is one of the benefit of using Genuine copy of Windows. Now you do get the updates, keeping your system up-to date, and provides you with every bug fixes. When you download these updates, sometimes it asks you for a reboot. Its sometimes irritating, specially when you are doing a important work. How can you avoid this option. Well Microsoft allows you edit these settings, but its not so easy that a basic user can find it. So here is that way, through which you can stop the automatic restart option. 1. Go to Start –> Run, type “gpedit.msc”. 2. Go to Computer Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Update. 3. Look for option “No Auto Restart For Scheduled Automatic Update installation” and Enable that option. This will make sure that your computer is not reboot automatically, instead it will just notify you for a reboot. It will be users choice as to when to reboot your computer If in case you want it to notify you again and again, after a specific interval of time, then look for option “Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations”. Enable that option and specify the time. Everything above is all easy, its just editing some policies which you can perform easily.

Speed Up Starting Of CD/DVD Burning Software

Whenever you Burn your data onto a CD/DVD, you might have noticed that it takes time to open the software. Either you use Nero or Roxio or any other software, it takes time to open. You can speed this process by making some changes in the services. Some of the services used by this software are not required and can be stopped. This will make the process much faster. Lets see how. 1. Go to Start –> Control Panel –> Administrative Tools –> Services. 2. Select IMAPI CD-Burning COM Service and Disable the Startup Type. 3. Click OK and Exit. You will now see the difference. This makes the service much faster then your previous experience. However, if you are using the Windows inbuilt burning service, then you might not see this service, and if you do then disabling this won’t have any effect.

Hiding User Accounts On Logon Screen In XP

If you are using multiple accounts on a same computer and using the new way to Logon, then sometimes you may have felt to hide some of the accounts, as they might be important for you but you use them very often, and don’t want computer to show them all. We do sometimes create some accounts for testing purpose as well. Lets see how to just hide them rather then deleting it and recreating it again. 1. Go to Start –> Run and type regedit. 2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\SpecialAccounts\UserList 3. There Right click on Userlist, and create a New DWORD value. 4. Name the value as the Account name, and give its value as 0. This will make sure that your account is now hidden. 5. If you want to unhide it back, then just change the value from 0 to 1, this will unhide the account.

BackUp Your Registry Easily

As in the past i have posted a lot on registry editing, to make things work and some hacks, it is hence very necessary to backup your registry, so as if anything wrong happens then at least you are in a position to restore the previous settings. Here is a way to backup your registry. 1. Open Regedit, and click File in the Menu bar. 2. Click Export and save this file in a safe place. 3. You can now edit your registry safely. If you feel like you have made some unknown changes, you need to Import this file back.

Some File And Folder Setting Tweaks

We all work with files and folders and we are well aware of all the aspect of it. Still there are some characteristics of files and folders that some of us are unaware of. Here are few tweaks I want to share with you all. • Rename Multiple files : To rename several files at a single go, select all the files (Ctrl + A) and right click on a file, and rename it. The other files will also follow the same, they will be renamed and distinguished by numbers at the end of the renamed file. • Remove the Filename : To remove filename in your folder in the Thumbnail view, Just hold the Shift key and select the Thumbnail view for your folder, this will remove the filename for your folder, but for thumbnail view only, rest all other type of views will remain unaffected. Removing the filename will give you some more space to show your files. • Grouping Files : You can try grouping your files as well. Grouping files in Alphabetical order can help you if you get lots of files. I use it to manage my notes. To group your files, Right click in your folder, Arrange Icon by, and select Show in groups. This will enable the grouping of files. These were some tricks I use, if you got something else to say, leave your comments.

Editing The Boot.ini File

Boot.ini file is an initialization file, but editing it for some people has been a bad experience. In this post i will let you know the codes and their meaning and also how to edit them easily. By default this is hidden in Xp, but in case of win 98, it can be searched. To access the file in Xp :- • Right click on My Computer and select Properties. • Go to the Advanced tab and click Settings in Startup and Recovery section. • Click Edit and you will see the Boot.ini file opened in a notepad. Now File says something like this [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect The First line [Boot loader] just states the Booting Process. timeout=30 is the time that will be provided to you to select from the list of OS’s installed. This works only in case you have multiple OS’s installed. It can be reduced easily, but make sure you give enough time to react upon it. 10 Seconds is the appropriate time. The third line says multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect. multi(0) tells us the IDE on which the drive is attached to. Usually its Primary only. disk(0) shows the number of Hard disks mounted. rdisk(0) tells us from which disk it is booting. In case of SCSI drives, it might not show up. partition(1) tell that on which Logical partition the OS is installed on. After that it says “Microsoft Windows XP Professional” that is the name that shows up on the OS selection page. You can put your own name there as well. This was the editable part of Boot.ini file. Now in case if you delete the file accidentally then you need not worry, you don’t need to create the file again. Xp will create a file of its own, and your system is safe. But in case if someone edits it and puts in the wrong information, then it you system will find the file but not the correct path. So that might harm your Computer. So, this was a small post on Boot.ini file and its editing. IF you got anything more to say or add, Do Comment.

Stopping Windows From Creating Thumbs.db File

Thumbs.db files are created when we select the Thumbnail view for our folders. This file contains the current picture of the directory, and thus acquire some space. to free some more space from your computer just follow these steps to stop these files. 1. Go to Control Panel –> Folder Options. 2. Go to View Tab, and in the first section look for Do not Cache Thumbnails. 3. Tick that option and click OK. After you do this no more Thumbs.db files will be created. Rest if you want to delete, then you can search for it and then delete.

Enable/Disable Your Task Manager

Well, this situation might never arise when you need to Disable your Task manager. But more commonly it happens because of a virus attack. Viruses do disable the Task Manager. Now they do so by editing the Registry values. Even if you remove the viruses, the registry changes will remain and thy will continue to effect your system, until you correct them. This is easy and I will let you know how this can be done with just a small change in Registry. Here’s what you need to do. 1. Go to Start –> Run, and open Regedit. 2. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System 3. If you are infected by a Virus then you will see a Dword Value “DisableTaskMgr“, if not, then create this new value. 4. To Enable it, give a value of “0“, and to Disable it, give it a value of “1“ This is a very simple method by which Task manager can be Enabled/ Disabled. Apart from that, if you are in a network, and want to disable Task manager for a user, then you need to change the Computer Policies.

Block USB Devices

To this what can be done is that the USB can be blocked and then stopping the use of USB drives. Here is a simple registry hack to do so, try it with care. 1. Go to Start –> Run, type Regedit. 2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlset\Services\USBStor 3. In the right pane, look for value Start and have value as 0000000(3) 4. Double click on that and change that value to 4. You might be required to restart the PC, and then you are done with it, USB is now blocked. In case if you want to get the USB unblocked, just change the value again to 3. See, its so easy. Isn’t it

To Trace Original Email Sender

The purpose of this guide is to show the process involved in tracing an email. The first step required to tracing an email is finding out the headers of the email. What are headers? Email headers are lines added at the top of an email message that are used by servers as the email goes on route to get delivered. Generally email clients only show the standard To, From, and Subject headers, but there are more. Enabling Email Headers For Gmail Step 1:Once Logged into your Gmail Account open the Email whose headers you want to view. Click on the “More Options” link in the message next to the date of the email. Step 2: Now click the “Show Original” link. Step 3: This link will popup a new window the headers and the body of the message. Enabling Email Headers For Hotmail Step 1:Once logged in, click on the "Options" link in the upper navigation bar. Step 2: Now click on the "Mail Display Settings" link. Step 3: Change the "Message Headers" option to "Full" and click ok. Step 4: Go to your inbox and open any one of your email. You emails show now contain additional headers. Enabling Email Headers For Yahoo Step 1:Once logged in, click on the "Options" link in the upper navigation bar. Step 2: Now click on the "General Preferences" link. Step 3: In the paragraph titled Messages and locate the "Headers" heading and select "All". Step 4: Go to your inbox and open any one of your email. You emails show now contain additional headers.

Make your Invisible Yahoo friends visible..

Is your friend always hiding in Invisible mode? Do you want to check out what display image your friend is using eventhough he is offline? Then here is the perfect solution.... It is one of the very good site that I have came across, accurate all the time. All you have to do is to just enter your friends yahoo id and the site will display the rest. Your friends status and also his display image. Visit the site Invisible Scanner

Fool A Keylogger !!

These days Agents spy on u everywhere, in college, at work, maybe a trojan virus on your home PC which keylogs your paswords and mails it to someone else. If u think u r being logged, try this: Whenever u have to type a password, never type the complete password in one go, ie, if your password is WINDOWS, u should type NDOW, then move cursor to start of the password field using the mouse ONLY, then type WI, then move cursor to end using the mouse and type S. This way the logger will record your keystrokes as [ndowwis] instead of [WINDOWS]. Haha, keylogger fooled.

Change The Default Location For Installing Applications

Tired of changing the installation directory each time you install a software. Nobody wishes to install anything in their C drive or the windows drive as it results in slower performance of the computer. The default installation directory on windows is C:\Program Files into which new programs are installed. What if you wish to install all the programs into another directory on another drive? However, you can change the default installation drive and / or directory by using a registry hack. Start Run Type regedit Go to this directory: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and Windows will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

5 ways to speed up your PC

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online. Free up disk space By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files. Use Disk Cleanup to: • Remove temporary Internet files. • Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets). • Empty the Recycle Bin. • Remove Windows temporary files. • Remove optional Windows components that you don't use. • Remove installed programs that you no longer use. Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later. To use Disk Cleanup 1. Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean. 2. In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. 3. Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK. 4. When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes. After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better. Speed up access to data Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer. Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up. When to run Disk Defragmenter In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when: • You add a large number of files. • Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less. • You install new programs or a new version of Windows. To use Disk Defragmenter: 1.Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter. 2.In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives. Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take. 3.To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results. 4.To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report. 5.To close the View Report dialog box, click Close. 6.To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window. Detect and repair disk errors In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility. As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced. If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss. To run the Error Checking utility: 1.Close all open files. 2.Click Start, and then click My Computer. 3.In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties. 4.In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab. 5.Click the Check Now button. 6.In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start. 7.If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them. Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors. Protect your computer against spyware Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. Learn all about ReadyBoost If you're using Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.