Windows 7 Tips and Tricks You Will Love

Ok, you’ve been hearing the buzz about Windows 7, and you want to give it a try. Let’s say you downloaded Windows 7 RC for free , installed it and are now sitting there wondering “Wait, so what’s so cool about this?”.
This is the blog entry for you, I've going to try and sum up every cool tip and trick for Windows 7 that i could find online (and from my own experience) and post it here for quick and easy consumption. So get ready to either memorize everything below, or just print the page out.

Aero Window Management Keyboard Shortcuts
Below is a list of the cooler keyboard shortcuts that you can now use in Windows 7 for quickly managing your windows.

◦Dragging any window against the LEFT, RIGHT or TOP edge of the screen will perform the following operation:
• LEFT: Anchor window against left side of screen, vertically maximize window and fill about half the screen horizontally
• RIGHT: Anchor window against right side of screen, vertically maximize window and fill about half the screen horizontally
• TOP: Maximize the window


◦ WINDOWS-KEY + LEFT/RIGHT: Dock the current focused window against the LEFT or RIGHT side of the screen, maximizing it vertically.

• Add SHIFT to the keystrokes above to send windows across multiple monitors to other desktops.

◦ WINDOWS-KEY + UP/DOWN: Maximize the current focused window to full screen (UP) or restore it’s original size (DOWN) or minimize it to the taskbar (DOWN again)

◦ WINDOWS-KEY + HOME: Hide all windows except the current focused window. Pressing the keystroke again will un-hide all the hidden windows. This is a convenience keystroke for visually decluttering your monitor.

◦ WINDOWS-KEY + SPACE: Momentarily make all windows transparent, allowing you to look at your desktop. Can we helpful if you are trying to double-check the name of something or possibly view a gadget.

◦ Hold CTRL while clicking on a taskbar icon that has multiple instances of the app open will cycle through all the windows of that same kind. For example, having 5 Firefox windows open, I can hold CTRL and keep clicking the Firefox taskbar icon, and each window will popup focused until I see the one I want.

◦ WINDOWS-KEY + T: This will focus the taskbar and allow you to use LEFT and RIGHT to cycle through the apps on the taskbar.

Tips, Tweaks and Launch Apps
Below is a list of some of the cooler tweaks or tips on using Windows 7 that you’ll love.

◦ Hold SHIFT + RIGHT-CLICK on any folder in Windows Explorer to show the advanced items in the context menu such as Open command prompt here:


◦ WINDOWS-KEY + 1/2/3/4/5: Will automatically launch 1-5 of the pinned icons from your Taskbar for you. For example, if Firefox is my first pinned icon on my taskbar, I can launch it with WINDOWS-KEY + 1.

◦ Hold CTRL + SHIFT + LEFT-CLICK to automatically launch an application in Administrative mode. No need to right-click > Run as Administrator anymore.

◦ Hold SHIFT + LEFT-CLICK on any application icon in the taskbar (pinned or unpinned) will start another instance of whatever app you clicked on.

• TIP: You can even just use a single MIDDLE-CLICK on the app to launch a second copy if your mouse has a 3rd middle mouse button.

◦ Adding NAS folders to Windows 7 Libraries. By default Windows 7 doesn’t support adding NAS folder locations to your Libraries, Chris Hunkele tells us that the reason for this limitation is that the remote host serving up the folders must be running the new Indexing Service — which most 3rd party NAS’s (like the ReadyNAS series) won’t be running. You can work around this issue two different ways:

1. If you are just trying to replace your My Music, My Videos, etc. folders with NAS-located folders, bring up the properties for those folders, go to the Locations tab, and “Move” the location from the current hard-drive location to your NAS location:


2. If you are trying to add additional folders to the libraries that are on your NAS, you can use this tip using mklink (sort of like Unix’s symlinks) to link what Windows thought was a local dir, out to a NAS-located dir out from under it, allowing you to get NAS folders into your libraries.

Hidden Cool Apps
“Hidden” in the sense that there are not Start Menu shortcuts for these apps, and the jobs they performance are pretty slick.

◦ Problem Steps Recorder (psr.exe): A
troubleshooting tool that will record mouse movement, keyboard input and screenshot
every changed screen of a workflow and when done (”Stop Recording” is pressed), will
ZIP everything up with screenshots into a nice ZIP file that can be shared with a
technician.

• TIP: For any software companies out there,
you can use this to make capturing
documentation flows a lot easier!

◦ Display Color Calibration (dccw.exe): Used
to tweak the color and display calibration of your monitor. I found this wizard to
be designed in a sub-optimal way, showing you the “target” display examples on one
page, and then asking you to adjust your settings for “optimal viewing” on the next
page — where the example of what you wanted was no longer visible. I can’t say I saw
a huge improvement with this.

◦ ClearType Text Tuner (cctune.exe): Used to
tweak the hinting and way ClearType
text is displayed on your LCD monitor. I didn’t end up needing this, but if you have
a problem with how text is displaying, this can help.

◦ Burn Disc Image (ISO burning support): You
can double-click on any .ISO file now
and be prompted with an application to burn it to a disc:


. Windows Movie Maker: You’ll notice in Windows 7 RC, Windows Movie Maker is
missing. It’s now part of the Windows Life Essentials package and is currently being
reworked inside Microsoft for inclusion in Windows 7 final release. In the mean time
you will have to make due with Windows Movie Maker 2.6:

Top 10 Things to Look Forward to in Windows 7

While the next iteration of the ubiquitous Microsoft desktop operating system, Windows 7, isn't a dramatic overhaul of its predecessor Windows Vista, it does fix several sore spots and add a few welcome features. Rumor has it that Windows 7 will drop in the middle of next year, but last month Microsoft released a "preview" tester build of Windows 7. After living in the Windows 7 Preview for a week now, several features and niceties jumped out at me which promise to make Windows a better place to work come 2009. Let's take a look.

Note: The Windows 7 Preview is a pre-beta release, which means it's not even close to feature-complete. Chances are good that later releases will add or take away features listed below (though most likely later releases will grow these seeds and add a few more goodies).

Second note: Surely Windows 7 includes stability and performance improvements under the hood with highly technical explanations that would make operating system coders very happy. However, this list is purely from my experience as a regular user, living and working with Windows 7 for about five days.

Here are just a few of the things to look forward to in Windows 7.

1. You can do MUCH more from the Windows 7 taskbar
Most people live with the Windows taskbar visible on their desktop at all times, so the more use you can get out of the real estate it hogs, the better. Windows 7's taskbar is greatly improved in two ways. First, you can pin programs to it indefinitely for easy quick launch, similar to RocketDock or the Mac OS X dock. Second, on a crowded desktop covered with windows, using the new "Aero Peek" feature, you can preview individual windows from grouped taskbar apps, and even close documents from the thumbnails themselves. This doesn't sound like a big deal in theory, but in practice when you've got two monitors and a dozen windows open from four apps, Peek comes in way handy. Here's a screencast of Peek in action. (Note: The Windows 7 Preview's version of Peek is yet incomplete; this is just the beginning of what you'll be able to do with it.)



There's also a permanent "Show Desktop" button on the far right of the taskbar which both clears the Desktop of all windows (instant Boss button!) and restores them right to where they were in another click.

As you can see, Windows 7 is a big pile of small improvements over Vista that amount to a lot in aggregate. As such, ordering this list was difficult, since there isn't an obvious, stand-out, "here's why you'd definitely upgrade to Windows 7" feature. It's simply better in many little ways.

2. Windows 7 starts up faster
Scheduling your morning coffee run for the time between the moment you hit the power button on your PC and actually start working sucks. Windows Vista is sloooooow when it comes to starting up and getting you to your desktop; but even the Preview tester release of Windows 7 shows 20% faster boot times than Vista.

3. You can instantly snap your windows to size, and clear the desktop in one motion
As widescreen monitors become more common, easier side-by-side window management is key—and Windows 7 builds that in. While not as configurable as a third-party program like GridMove, Windows 7 offers the ability to snap a window to half your screen size simply by dragging it to the left or right of the screen. Here's what it looks like when you do so—let go of your mouse button and that Lifehacker browser window would snap that half-screen-sized glass overlay you see behind it.


Along similar lines, the new "Aero Shake" feature lets you clear the desktop of all background windows by grabbing the top bar of the active window and moving it back and forth quickly. Here's a screencast of the shake in action.



4. Libraries group similar content; Homegroups to make sharing libraries easier
Windows networking is a pain in the ass, but Windows 7 is out to fix that with two things: content Libraries and Homegroups. Libraries are a way to group similar types of files even if they live in different folders. For instance, your Video library could include your TV folder, Movies folder, DVD Rips folder, and your Home Movies folder. Then, you can create a Homegroup (basically a reworking of Windows' existing Workgroups), that makes sharing those libraries between PCs easier. Since I don't have two Windows 7 boxes available, I wasn't able to test how much easier sharing files was between the machines; however, the whole file-sharing layout and UI looks significantly more intuitive for regular Jolenes who just want to view the photos stored on the office computer in the living room.



5. You get more control of User Account Control
The single biggest complaint about Windows Vista was its User Account Control's incessant, nagging, pop-up dialogs that would ask you if you were ABSOLUTELY SURE you wanted to do the thing you just told the computer to do. In the name of security, Vista would even check if this STRANGE and SCARY program called Notepad was ok to run:


While legions of Vista users would sacrifice the well-intentioned security that User Account Control offered by turning it off completely just to get their sanity back, in Windows 7 you can fine-tune the level of nags, warnings, and confirmation prompts you get.

Click the thumbnail to see the UAC fine-tuner slider built into Windows 7.




6. You can decide what you do and don't want to see in the system tray
No more registry-editing to blanket-disable balloon notifications in your system tray! Windows 7 lets you set what icons and notifications you see in your tray with a detailed dialog box. Just right-click the system tray and choose "Customize..." in the menu.

Click the thumbnail to enlarge:




7. You can switch between Wi-Fi networks in one click from the system tray
File this under "a small change can make a huge difference": Click on the Wi-Fi adapter in your system tray to pop up a menu of available wireless networks. From there you can refresh the list, and choose the one you want to connect to in one click. Another boon for roaming notebook users.



8. Windows 7 will run longer on your notebook's battery power
While I'm running the Windows 7 Preview on a plugged-in desktop computer, notebook owners will be thrilled to know that Windows 7 promises to run more efficiently and thus longer on battery.

9. Calculator, WordPad, and Paint got overhauled
It sucks that Windows 7 is stripping the built-in Photo Gallery and movie-making software that you'll find in Vista (even the Windows Calendar is nowhere to be found in the 7 Preview), but a few of their built-in stalwarts did get some attention. WordPad and Paint both got the Office 2007 ribbon installed, and Calculator now incorporates real world uses into it. At this point only masochists still use Paint and WordPad, but the extension of the ribbon to those inconsequential programs may be a harbinger for more upgrades and ribbon appearances in the future.



10. Ding-dong, the Sidebar is dead
One of the first things I hunted down and killed in Windows Vista was the Sidebar, which loaded by default and docked Vista's Gadgets to the right side of your desktop. In Windows 7, the sidebar is no more, and gadgets, should you want them, can roam free across the desktop. This time around, the gadgets feel less distracting to me—the CPU meter and calendar gadgets are my favorites, though this screenshot shows many more.


If you Like it then post a comment,

Windows 7's Best Underhyped Features

We've run down the top 10 Windows 7 features and the best new features in the RC, but after using Windows 7 exclusively for a week straight, the real goods are in the small stuff.

While you've no doubt seen a few of these features mentioned before, most of the items below have received the least attention from Windows 7 previews. It's these less sexy, but very useful features, that make me think the more I use Windows 7, the less chance I'll ever use Vista or XP again.

Libraries Make File Management Easy

Windows 7's Libraries are a huge leap ahead of file management in previous versions of Windows—rather than dealing solely in files and directories, they are a virtual location that can aggregate the content from multiple places at once.

Like most Lifehacker readers, I'm using Dropbox to sync my files across multiple computers—including a subset of my music collection. Rather than trying to use hacks to sync directories outside my DropBox folder or dropping to the command-line to create some symlinks, it was as simple as adding my Dropbox music collection folder to the Music library.




Once you've added your folders to a library, they will show up anywhere you navigate to that library, including the common file Open/Save dialogs—makes dealing with complicated folders a thing of the past.




Jump Lists Add Quick Access to Common Features

Windows 7 replaces the taskbar context menu with a useful list of frequently used documents, tasks, and even allows you to pin documents or shortcuts to the menu. You can access this by right-clicking on the taskbar button, or you can hold down the left mouse button and "drag" the mouse pointer up—an easy motion for touchscreen displays.

Want to quickly access Internet Explorer's Private browsing mode? Simply right-click on the icon and you can launch a new private window—you can create a shortcut for private browsing in earlier versions of Windows, but it's not quite the same.

Want to access a few websites quickly? Just drag the icon from the address bar down to the taskbar icon to pin it to the top of the Jump List—now you can get to those websites in a flash, whether Firefox is open at the moment or not.



Put the Taskbar Back to Vista/XP Style

If you simply can't get used to the new Windows 7 taskbar, Microsoft was (thankfully) smart enough to let you change everything back to what you were used to in previous versions of Windows.

Just head over to Taskbar and Start Menu properties, choose to use small icons, never combine, and then un-pin the applications from the taskbar—though you may want to try using the "Combine only when taskbar is full" option to get the best of both worlds.

If you're the screenshot tour type of person, You've get a full walk-through tutorial to changing the taskbar to work more like Windows XP or Vista, and to complete the picture you can also add the quick launch bar back to the taskbar in Windows 7.

Run Apps as Another User

If your favorite application doesn't support multiple profiles, you can often mimic this functionality by running the application as another user. In previous versions of Windows this wasn't quite as simple—now you can just right-click on any application while holding down the Shift key and choose to run it as another user.

Hidden Items on the Send To Menu
Most Lifehacker readers probably know how to customize the Send To menu—just type in shell:sendto into the address bar, and add or delete shortcuts from the list. But Windows 7 makes it easier with a bunch of secret items on the Send To menu.

If you hold down the Shift key while right-clicking on a file or folder, you'll see a whole list of extra items that are normally hidden. The extra menu items are simply the list of directories under your user folder, but it's a useful feature that makes you want to start using the shift key every time you right-click just to see what comes up!



Automatic Desktop Wallpaper Shuffling

Let me start by saying that I've never been a big fan of rotating wallpaper—in fact, I use the same background image so often that there are constant requests for the awesome Mario World wallpaper from my screenshots.

Windows 7's simple, easy, and awesome wallpaper shuffling has won me over. I'm officially a convert. Not only does Windows 7 include a ton of absolutely killer wallpaper images, but you can select more than one at a time with the checkboxes (or holding the Ctrl key) and then choose to rotate them every so many minutes.

The fun doesn't stop there, however—you can right-click on the desktop any time you want to skip to the next desktop background image. Since the default Windows 7 theme uses a ton of transparency, your whole desktop theme will appear to change to fit the new color scheme—it's beautiful.



User Account Control is Streamlined, Less Annoying

Without question, the biggest complaint on Windows Vista is the completely annoying UAC prompts that were even ridiculed in Apple commercials—so irritating, in fact, that I've written multiple articles on making UAC less annoying—from disabling it entirely to creating administrator mode shortcuts that bypass the prompts.

That's changed significantly in Windows 7, however—common (geeky) operations like copying system files only require a single prompt, and the whole system has been streamlined a great deal to be less annoying. If you're still getting too many prompts, you can simply type "uac" into the start menu search box, and then drag the slider down (though you should be warned you are decreasing security).


What about you? Has Windows 7's uber-slick interface won you over? What features really stand out for you? Tell us in the comments.

20 things you didn't know about Windows XP

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.

How Disable/Enable Windows XP Welcome Screen

How to Disable/Enable the Windows XP Welcome Screen
This article allows you to Enable or Disable that classical Windows XP Welcome Screen which welcomes the user with a sky-blue coloured screen, and a number of images, with the respective User Accounts.

Steps

1. Click on Start.

2. Click on Control Panel.

3. Double-click on User Accounts.

4. Click on "Change the way users log on or off".

5. Uncheck "Use the Welcome Screen".

6. Click on Apply Options.

7. Close the User Accounts window and the Control Panel.

8. The next time you reboot your computer, the classic login prompt will be used.

How To Hack XP Without Changing Password

How to Hack or Break Into a Windows XP Computer Without Changing Password

Ever forgotten a windows xp password? Well, now you can have the assurance of being able to access an account and reset the password without previously knowing the password. This works for any account with a windows xp computer that's not booted off a network.

Steps

1.Get physical access to the machine. Remember that it must have a CD or DVD drive.

2.Go to http://ebcd.pcministry.com/ and
download the disc ISO in the pro version.

3.Download the file and then burn the ISO onto a blank disc using an ISO writer or
CD burner such as nero or UltraISO. This creates the EBCD bootable disc. This also
has many other tools. You may do this on the target machine or on another machine.

4.After you have the disk, enter the bios of the target machine and make sure that
the first boot drive is the CD or DVD ROM. Chances are it already is.

5.Boot from the disk. It should automatically load the main screen, but if it asks
you to press any key to boot from the CD, do so.

6.After it has booted, choose option number 5, the password recovery. This will
guide you through a set of steps and instructions, and if you don't know
otherwise, just press enter and it will use the default options, which will work
just fine.

7.When you get to the list of users, choose the user whose password needs to be
reset. Follow the instructions that the program gives you, such as type in the
user name, and put the password in as the * key to just blank the password. This
is much more successful than changing the password through this program.

8.Once this is done, make sure that you write the changes to the hive and SAM files
(an option the program will ask you about upon exiting).

9.Reboot the computer and take the cd out before the computer boots from it again.

10.Log in as that user (it will have no password if you just blanked it).

11.You can now create a password for that user.

Win XP Won’t Completely Shutdown

- Goto Control Panel, then goto Power Options.
- Click on the APM Tab, then check the "Enable Advanced Power Management support."
- Shut down your PC. It should now successfully complete the Shut Down process.

Install/Enable NetBEUI Under WinXP

If for some reason you need to install NetBEUI then follow these instructions.

**Note - You will need the WinXP CD in order to to this!

Support for the NetBIOS Extended User Interface protocols (also called NetBEUI or NBF) in Windows XP has been discontinued. If your configuration requires temporary use of NetBEUI for Windows XP, follow these steps:

To install the NETBEUI protocol:

- Locate the Valueadd/msft/net/netbeui directory on your Windows XP CD.Copy nbf.sys into the %SYSTEMROOT%SYSTEM32DRIVERS directory.

- Copy netnbf.inf into the %SYSTEMROOT%INF directory.

- In Control Panel, click Network and Internet Connections and then click Network Connections.

- Right-click the connection you want to configure, and then click Properties.

- On the General tab, click the INSTALL button to add the NetBEUI protocol.

How to use Windows Update Properly

If you want to save your files to your hard drive, so after a format you dont have to download them all again, here's How:

- Logon to Windows Update

- Choose Windows Update Catalogue (left hand pane)

- Choose Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems (right hand pane)

- Choose your version and language then Search

- Choose one the following:

- Critical Updates and Service Packs
- Service Packs and Recommended Downloads
- Multi-Language Features (0)


- Once chosen simply click on what you want to download and then back at the top click Review Download Basket

- You are taken to the next page where at the top you can specify where the downloads are to be saved.

- Click Download now. Each patch will make a directory under the root of the folder you saved them to.
Once finished you need to go to where you saved the file (s) to and then simply install all your patches.

Make your Folders Private

•Open My Computer
•Double-click the drive where Windows is installed (usually drive (C:), unless you have more than one drive on your computer).
•If the contents of the drive are hidden, under System Tasks, click Show the contents of this drive.
•Double-click the Documents and Settings folder.
•Double-click your user folder.
•Right-click any folder in your user profile, and then click Properties.
•On the Sharing tab, select the Make this folder private so that only I have access to it check box.


Note

•To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
•This option is only available for folders included in your user profile. Folders in your user profile include My Documents and its subfolders, Desktop, Start Menu, Cookies, and Favorites. If you do not make these folders private, they are available to everyone who uses your computer.
•When you make a folder private, all of its subfolders are private as well. For example, when you make My Documents private, you also make My Music and My Pictures private. When you share a folder, you also share all of its subfolders unless you make them private.
•You cannot make your folders private if your drive is not formatted as NTFS For information about converting your drive to NTFS

NTFS vs. FAT

To NTFS or not to NTFS—that is the question. But unlike the deeper questions of life, this one isn't really all that hard to answer. For most users running Windows XP, NTFS is the obvious choice. It's more powerful and offers security advantages not found in the other file systems. But let's go over the differences among the files systems so we're all clear about the choice. There are essentially three different file systems available in Windows XP: FAT16, short for File Allocation Table, FAT32, and NTFS, short for NT File System.


FAT16
The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.

FAT32
The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

The Advantages of NTFS
The NTFS file system, introduced with first version of Windows NT, is a completely different file system from FAT. It provides for greatly increased security, file–by–file compression, quotas, and even encryption. It is the default file system for new installations of Windows XP, and if you're doing an upgrade from a previous version of Windows, you'll be asked if you want to convert your existing file systems to NTFS. Don't worry. If you've already upgraded to Windows XP and didn't do the conversion then, it's not a problem. You can convert FAT16 or FAT32 volumes to NTFS at any point. Just remember that you can't easily go back to FAT or FAT32 (without reformatting the drive or partition), not that I think you'll want to.

The NTFS file system is generally not compatible with other operating systems installed on the same computer, nor is it available when you've booted a computer from a floppy disk. For this reason, many system administrators, myself included, used to recommend that users format at least a small partition at the beginning of their main hard disk as FAT. This partition provided a place to store emergency recovery tools or special drivers needed for reinstallation, and was a mechanism for digging yourself out of the hole you'd just dug into. But with the enhanced recovery abilities built into Windows XP (more on that in a future column), I don't think it's necessary or desirable to create that initial FAT partition.

When to Use FAT or FAT32
If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer, you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT file systems.

Ports That Are Used by Windows Product Activation

Windows Product Activation uses the following ports:

80 - HTTP
443 - HTTPS

Provide Remote Assistance Using a NAT Device

You can provide Remote Assistance to a friend who uses a Network Address Translation (NAT) device by modifying the Remote Assistance invitation using XML. Network Address Translation is used to allow multiple computers to share the same outbound Internet connection. To open a Remote Assistance session with a friend who uses a NAT device:

1. Ask your friend to send you a Remote Assistance invitation by e–mail.

2. Save the invitation file to your desktop.
3. Right–click the file, and then click Open With Notepad. You'll see that the file is a simple XML file.
4.Under the RCTICKET attribute is a private IP address, such as 192.168.1.100.
5. Over–write this IP address with your friend's public IP address. Your friend must send you his or her public IP address: they can find out what it is by going to a Web site that will return the public IP address, such as http://www.dslreports.com/ip.
6. Save the file, and then double–click it to open the Remote Assistance session.

Now, you'll be able to connect and provide them with the help they need. So that your inbound IP connection is routed to the correct computer, the NAT must be configured to route that inbound traffic. To do so, make sure your friend forwards port 3389 to the computer they want help from.

How to Rename the Recycle Bin

To change the name of the Recycle Bin desktop icon, open Regedit and go to:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name "Recycle Bin" to whatever you want (don't type any quotes).

Restricting Logon Access

If you work in a multiuser computing environment, and you have full (administrator level) access to your computer, you might want to restrict unauthorized access to your "sensitive" files under Windows 95/98.
One way is to disable the Cancel button in the Logon dialog box.
Just run Regedit and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Network/Logon

Create the "Logon" subkey if it is not present on your machine: highlight the Network key -> right-click in the left hand Regedit pane -> select New -> Key -> name it "Logon" (no quotes) -> press Enter. Then add/modify a DWORD value and call it "MustBeValidated" (don't type the quotes). Double-click it, check the Decimal box and type 1 for value.
Now click the Start button -> Shut Down (Log off UserName) -> Log on as a different user, and you'll notice that the Logon Cancel button has been disabled.

Search For Hidden Or System Files In Windows XP

The Search companion in Windows XP searches for hidden and system files differently than in earlier versions of Windows. This guide describes how to search for hidden or system files in Windows XP.

Search for Hidden or System Files By default, the Search companion does not search for hidden or system files. Because of this, you may be unable to find files, even though they exist on the drive.

To search for hidden or system files in Windows XP:
Click Start, click Search, click All files and folders, and then click More advanced options.

Click to select the Search system folders and Search hidden files and folders check boxes.

NOTE: You do not need to configure your computer to show hidden files in the Folder Options dialog box in Windows Explorer to find files with either the hidden or system attributes, but you need to configure your computer not to hide protected operating system files to find files with both the hidden and system attributes. Search Companion shares the Hide protected operating system files option (which hides files with both the system and hidden attributes) with the Folder Options dialog box Windows Explorer.

Set Permissions for Shared Files and Folders

Sharing of files and folders can be managed in two ways. If you chose simplified file sharing, your folders can be shared with everyone on your network or workgroup, or you can make your folders private. (This is how folders are shared in Windows 2000.) However, in Windows XP Professional, you can also set folder permissions for specific users or groups. To do this, you must first change the default setting, which is simple file sharing. To change this setting, follow these steps:
•Open Control Panel, click Tools, and then click Folder Options.
•Click the View tab, and scroll to the bottom of the Advanced Settings list.
•Clear the Use simple file sharing (Recommended) check box.
•To manage folder permissions, browse to the folder in Windows Explorer, right–click the folder, and then click Properties. Click the Security tab, and assign permissions, such as Full Control, Modify, Read, and/or Write, to specific users.

You can set file and folder permissions only on drives formatted to use NTFS, and you must be the owner or have been granted permission to do so by the owner.

Set Processes Priority

Follow this tip to increase the priority of active processes, this will result in prioritisation of processes using the CPU.

CTRL-SHIFT-ESC

1.Go to the second tab called Processes, right click on one of the active processes, you will see the Set Priority option


2.For example, your Run your CDwriter program , set the priority higher, and guess what, no crashed CD’s

Set up and Use Internet Connection Sharing

With Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) in Windows XP, you can connect one computer to the Internet, then share the Internet service with several computers on your home or small office network. The Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Professional will automatically provide all of the network settings you need to share one Internet connection with all the computers in your network. Each computer can use programs such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express as if they were directly connected to the Internet.
You should not use this feature in an existing network with Windows 2000 Server domain controllers, DNS servers, gateways, DHCP servers, or systems configured for static IP addresses.


Enabling ICS

The ICS host computer needs two network connections. The local area network connection, automatically created by installing a network adapter, connects to the computers on your home or small office network. The other connection, using a 56k modem, ISDN, DSL, or cable modem, connects the home or small office network to the Internet. You need to ensure that ICS is enabled on the connection that has the Internet connection. By doing this, the shared connection can connect your home or small office network to the Internet, and users outside your network are not at risk of receiving inappropriate addresses from your network.
When you enable ICS, the local area network connection to the home or small office network is given a new static IP address and configuration. Consequently, TCP/IP connections established between any home or small office computer and the ICS host computer at the time of enabling ICS are lost and need to be reestablished. For example, if Internet Explorer is connecting to a Web site when Internet Connection Sharing is enabled, refresh the browser to reestablish the connection. You must configure client machines on your home or small office network so TCP/IP on the local area connection obtains an IP address automatically. Home or small office network users must also configure Internet options for Internet Connection Sharing. To enable Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) Discovery and Control on Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition computers, run the Network Setup Wizard from the CD or floppy disk on these computers. For ICS Discovery and Control to work on Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Millennium Edition computers, Internet Explorer version 5.0 or later must be installed.

To enable Internet Connection Sharing on a network connection

You must be logged on to your computer with an owner account in order to complete this procedure.
Open Network Connections. (Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double–click Network Connections.)

Click the dial–up, local area network, PPPoE, or VPN connection you want to share, and then, under Network Tasks, click Change settings of this connection.

On the Advanced tab, select the Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection check box.
If you want this connection to dial automatically when another computer on your home or small office network attempts to access external resources, select the Establish a dial–up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet check box.

If you want other network users to enable or disable the shared Internet connection, select the Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection check box.

Under Internet Connection Sharing, in Home networking connection, select any adapter that connects the computer sharing its Internet connection to the other computers on your network. The Home networking connection is only present when two or more network adapters are installed on the computer.


To configure Internet options on your client computers for Internet Connection Sharing

Open Internet Explorer. Click Start, point to All Programs, and then click Internet Explorer.)

On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.

On the Connections tab, click Never dial a connection, and then click LAN Settings.

In Automatic configuration, clear the Automatically detect settings and Use automatic configuration script check boxes.

In Proxy Server, clear the Use a proxy server check box.

Speed up your browsing of Windows 2000 & XP

Here's a great tip to speed up your browsing of Windows XP machines. Its actually a fix to a bug installed as default in Windows 2000 that scans shared files for Scheduled Tasks. And it turns out that you can experience a delay as long as 30 seconds when you try to view shared files across a network because Windows 2000 is using the extra time to search the remote computer for any Scheduled Tasks. Note that though the fix is originally intended for only those affected, Windows 2000 users will experience that the actual browsing speed of both the Internet & Windows Explorers improve significantly after applying it since it doesn't search for Scheduled Tasks anymore. Here's how :

Open up the Registry and go to :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/RemoteComputer/NameSpace

Under that branch, select the key :

{D6277990-4C6A-11CF-8D87-00AA0060F5BF}

and delete it.

This is key that instructs Windows to search for Scheduled Tasks. If you like you may want to export the exact branch so that you can restore the key if necessary.

This fix is so effective that it doesn't require a reboot and you can almost immediately determine yourself how much it speeds up your browsing processes.

How to make your Desktop Icons Transparent

Go to ontrol Panel > System, > Advanced > Performance area > Settings button Visual Effects tab "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the Desktop"

Upgrade Windows 98 or Millennium Profiles to XP

How to Upgrade Windows 98 or Windows Millennium Edition Profiles to Windows XP Domain User Profiles

This guide describes how to upgrade a Microsoft Microsoft Windows 98-based, or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition-based client that has user profiles to a Microsoft Windows XP-based client.

The following steps enable the Windows 98 and Windows Millennium Edition (Me) profiles to be retained throughout the process.

Your best method to retain the profiles is to join the domain during the upgrade installation process.
Otherwise, you must use a workaround method to transfer the profile information over to the Windows XP profile.

During the upgrade installation process, at the networking section, the administrator is offered the choice to join a domain or a workgroup.
If you join the domain at this juncture, you ensure that all the existing profiles are migrated successfully to the Windows XP-based installation.

If you did not join the computer to the domain during the upgrade process, you must use the following workaround method:

Join the upgraded computer to the target domain.

All applicable users must log on and log off (which generates a profile).

Copy the appropriate Application Data folder from the Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me profiles to the newly created user profiles.

Upgrading to Windows XP

You can upgrade a computer that runs Windows 98, 98SE, or Me to Windows XP Home Edition. Those same versions, along with Windows NT Workstation 4.0 and Windows 2000 Professional, can be upgraded to Windows XP Professional.

(1).To ensure a smooth upgrade and avoid networking problems, follow these tips before starting the upgrade:

(2)Install all network cards. XP will detect them and automatically install the right drivers.

(3)Have your Internet connection available. The XP setup process will connect to a Microsoft server to download the latest setup files, including changes that have been made since XP was released.

Some programs are incompatible with XP and can cause networking problems. Un-install these programs. After the upgrade is complete and the network is working, re-install XP-compatible versions of these programs: Internet Connection Sharing, NAT, Proxy Server Anti-Virus Firewall.

Set the Search Screen to the Classic Look

When I first saw the default search pane in Windows XP, my instinct was to return it to its classic look; that puppy had to go. Of course, I later discovered that a doggie door is built into the applet. Click "Change preferences" then "Without an animated screen character." If you'd rather give it a bare-bones "Windows 2000" look and feel, fire up your Registry editor and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ CabinetState.

You may need to create a new string value labeled "Use Search Asst" and set it to "no".

How to Remove Windows XP's Messenger

heoretically, you can get rid of it (as well as a few other things). Windows 2000 power users should already be familiar with this tweak.

Fire up the Windows Explorer and navigate your way to the %SYSTEMROOT% \ INF folder. What the heck is that thingy with the percentage signs? It's a variable. For most people, %SYSTEMROOT% is C:\Windows. For others, it may be E:\WinXP. Get it? Okay, on with the hack! In the INF folder, open sysoc.inf (but not before making a BACKUP copy first). Before your eyes glaze over, look for the line containing "msmsgs" in it. Near the end of that particular line, you'll notice that the word "hide" is not so hidden. Go ahead and delete "hide" (so that the flanking commas are left sitting next to one another). Save the file and close it. Now, open the Add and Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel. Click the Add / Remove Windows Components icon. You should see "Windows Messenger" in that list. Remove the checkmark from its box, and you should be set. NOTE: there are other hidden system components in that sysoc.inf file, too. Remove "hide" and the subsequent programs at your own risk.

Windows XP Logon Trick If Forgot Password

Here is a simple way to access Windows XP with Administrator rights and privileges if you have password protected your User account on your Windows XP system and can't remember the password(s) to login. Whenever Windows XP is installed on a system, it creates a default account called "Administrator" and by default this account is not password protected. Therefore, if you bought a brand name computer (such as Dell, HP, Compaq or Sony)or you have installed Windows XP yourself. You should be able to login to the computer through the unprotected Administrator account.

Steps


1. Reboot your machine.

2. Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears.
Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x series of Windows.

3. You will be be prompted with a boot options menu.

4. Select the Start Windows in Safe Mode option.

5. Click through several self-explanatory screens until your reach the
familiar 'Welcome' screen.

6. Note that this welcome screen is limited to 256 colors and 640x480 resolution
because the primary graphics will have been set to the Windows Safe Mode software
VGA adapter. You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options,
while Windows is running in Safe Mode.

7. Find the icon for the Administrator user. If the default settings of your system
haven't been changed, there should be no password for this account.
The Safe Mode Welcome screen might display some of the other users on your
system.

8. Login as the admin.

9. Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.

10. Continue on to the User Settings control panel. Here you can change any of the
other passwords for user on the machine. Make any changes you want.

11. Reboot your computer. As long as you don't press any keys (i.e. F8) during the
boot-up the computer will startup normally.

12. Login as the user for which you set the password.

Methods two

※.Login to a computer that can link to Internet. Download Windows Password Reset Tool and decompress it on that PC. Note that: there is a .ISO file. Burn the .ISO file to a CD.

※. Get out the newly created CD and insert it to the locked computer.

※. re-booted the locked computer and then followed the process of instructions. Just a few steps, the old password was removed.

※. Setting new password:

Step one: Open the "Control Panel"

Step two: Click the "User Account "

Step three: Select the account you wanna to set a new password.

Step four: Click "changing Account " and "set up password", then fill out the form as listed. Click "Create Password".

Thus, you have a personal login ID and Password, any one has no right to login to your computer with out this info.