Latest and Cool Computer Tips to play with

1)MAKE YOUR MENUS LOAD FASTER
This is one of my favorite tweaks as it makes a huge difference to how fast your machine will 'feel'. What this tweak does is remove the slight delay between clicking on a menu and XP displaying the menu.

Go to Start then Run
Type 'Regedit' then click 'Ok'
Find "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\"
Select "MenuShowDelay"
Right click and select "Modify'
Reduce the number to around "100"
This is the delay time before a menu is opened. You can set it to "0" but it can make windows really hard to use as menus will open if you just look at them - well move your mouse over them anyway. I tend to go for anywhere between 50-150 depending on my mood.

2)Remove Annoying delete Confirmation Messages in w
indows

Although not strictly a performance tweak I love this fix as it makes my machine 'feel' faster. I hate the annoying 'are you sure?' messages that XP displays, especially if I have to use a laptop touchpad to close them. To remove these messages:

1. Right-click on the 'Recycle Bin' on the desktop and then click 'Properties'

2. Clear the 'Display Delete Confirmation Dialog' check box and click 'Ok'

If you do accidentally delete a file don't worry as all is not lost. Just go to your Recycle Bin and 'Restore' the file.


3)

Disable Indexing Services to free up RAM

Indexing Services is a small little program that uses large amounts of RAM and can often make a computer endlessly loud and noisy. This system process indexes and updates lists of all the files that are on your computer. It does this so that when you do a search for something on your computer, it will search faster by scanning the index lists. If you don't search your computer often, or even if you do search often, this system service is completely unnecessary. To disable do the following:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Double-click Add/Remove Programs
5. Click the Add/Remove Window Components
6. Uncheck the Indexing services
7. Click Next

4)Disable CD/DVD or USB drive Autorun

Well, this is one of my most suggested and favorite computer trick. What this small trick does is, it simply makes you to disable Autorun of any removable drives such as cd, dvd, Pen drives etc.

You might have noticed often that, when ever you plugin your USB into the Usb port or when you insert a cd or dvd into the cd/Dvd rom drive, Auto play option automatically gets executed.

It is very dangerous to allow any drive autoplay on its own, specially Usb drives. Because, along with Autorun files, USB drives containing virus also gets executed resulting your computer affected by virus or Trojan horses.

So this trick goes this way.

Disable CD Autorun

1) Click Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
2) Go to Computer Configuration, then-> Administrative Templates,

---> System.
3) Locate the entry for Turn autoplay off. Double click on it

4) Click on Enable.

5) Select All Drives to disable all drives including Usb drives or only Cd Rom drive.

6) Now click on apply.

5)Optimize Display Settings in Windows XP for better performance

Windows XP can look sexy but displaying all the visual items can waste system resources. To optimize:

1. Go to Start
2. Click Settings
3. Click Control Panel
4. Click System
5. Click Advanced tab
6. In the Performance tab click Settings
7. Leave only the following ticked:

- Show shadows under menus
- Show shadows under mouse pointer
- Show translucent selection rectangle
- Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop
- Use visual styles on windows and buttons

6)Improve Windows XP Shutdown Speed

This tweak reduces the time XP waits before automatically closing any running programs when you give it the command to shutdown.
Go to Start then select Run
Type 'Regedit' and click ok
Find 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\'
Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'
Now select 'HungAppTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'

Now find 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Select 'WaitToKillAppTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'
Now find 'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\'
Select 'WaitToKillServiceTimeout'
Right click and select 'Modify'
Change the value to '1000'
Click 'OK'

7)Boot Or Start Computer Faster

Many computers take a lot of time to boot (or start ).This is due to many reasons.

Some slight changes can do wonders for your system:

1. Press start->run then type msconfig and press enter.

Go to the startup tab. Here you will see a list of startup items. These are all the programs that automatically start when you boot your PC. It is these that slow down the boot up process.
So uncheck all the unwanted items like ms-office, messengers other utilities that u may not need at startup). Don't uncheck your antivirus software.

Restart your Pc to and see for yourself, your pc will now boot faster....

2. A great new feature in Microsoft Windows XP is the ability to do a boot defragment. This places all boot files next to each other on the disk to allow for faster booting. By default this option is enabled, but on some systems it is not, so below is the information on how to turn it on:

Go to Start Menu and Click Run
Type in regedit then click ok
Find "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOpt imizeFunction"
Select "Enable" from the list on the right
Right on it and select "Modify"
Change the value to Y .
Reboot your Pc and see the change yourself.

3.SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS.!!
You may have tried many tweaks like modifying windows XP start-up applications, prefetches, unload DLLs method, etc. And yes those methods do work for me.
I have just accidentally found out another way to give you an extra boost in windows XP's boot performance. This is done by disabling your unused devices in Device Manager. for example, if you don't have input devices that are connected to one of your USB's or COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra performance boost in booting. Go to Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> device manager Disable devices that you don't use for your PC and then restart.

8) Single Click Shutdown for Windows OS

Did you know that in Windows XP you can shut down your computer from the (eventually DOS prompt) command line box? Moreover, you can do this by clicking your mouse only once.

All you need to do is... right-click on an empty Desktop spot -> select New -> Shortcut -> type shutdown followed by a space, and then enter one or more of the parameters listed below -> click Next -> type a suggestive name for your new shortcut -> finally, click Finish.

This is the Shutdown.exe (located in %systemroot%\System32, usually C:\Windows\System32) syntax:

shutdown [-i|-l|-s|-r|-a] [-f] [-m \\computername] [-t xx] [-c "Text"] [-d[u][p]:xx:yy]>

Valid command line switches:

-a = Abort system shutdown in progress ONLY IF the -t xx timeout option was already set to ANY value other than 0. ALL switches except -l and -m are ignored during abort.

-c "Text" = Text comment (case insensitive) to be displayed in the Message area of the System Shutdown window. MUST be enclosed between quotes. Maximum allowed 127 ASCII characters.

-d [u][p]:xx:yy = Reason code for shutdown:
u = User code.
p = Planned shutdown code.
xx = Major reason code. Positive integer number less than 256.
yy = Minor reason code. Positive integer number less than 65536.

-f = Force running applications to close without warning.

-i = Display the shutdown interface (GUI). MUST be the first option!

-l = Log off the current user of the local computer (default action). Can NOT be used with the -m option unless the current user has Sysadmin rights, in which case the -m switch takes precedence.
-m \\computername = Remote/network computer name (most always case sensitive) to log off/restart/shut down. Current user MUST have Sysadmin rights to be allowed to use this switch!

-s = Shut down the local computer.

-r = Shut down and restart (reboot) the local computer.

-t xx = Set shutdown timer to timeout for xx seconds. IF NOT specified defaults to 20 seconds. Allowed values between 0 and 99 seconds. The -a switch is the ONLY one that CAN be used during the timeout period.

NOTE:
The dash (-) in front of these switches can be replaced by a forward slash (/).

Spaces are NOT required to separate the shutdown command from ANY following switches, but ARE required to separate ANY switch from its following parameter(s), if any.
For example:

shutdown -s -c "Shutting down!" -t 3

tells your computer to shutdown after waiting for 3 seconds while the System Shutdown window will display text above in the Message area.

Optional: after you're done creating your customized shortcut for shutdown -> right-click on it -> select Properties -> enter your desired key "combo" in the Shortcut Key box (e.g. Ctrl + Alt + End) -> click OK/Apply.
From now on just left-click on your shutdown shortcut or hit that key combination to turn off/restart/log off your computer.

9)Simple Trick to Turn off all system beeps

If you want to turn off all system beeps (like the ones that go through your computers' internal speaker):

Start Regedit

Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Sound

Edit the key Beep and give it a value of No

10) Create nameless files and folders in windows

This trick will allow you to create files and folders without any name.
Just follow the following steps:

1. Select any file or folder.
2. Right click on it, press rename or simply press F2.
3. Press and hold the alt key. While holding the Alt key, type numbers 0160 from the numpad.

Note: Type the numbers 0160 from the numpad, that is, the numbers present on the right side of the keyboard. Don't type the numbers which are present on top of the character keys.

4. Press Enter and the nameless file or folder will be created.

Reason: The file or folder that seems nameless is actually named with a single space.

But what if you want to create another nameless file or folder in the same directory ?

For this you will have to rename the file with 2 spaces. Just follow these steps below:

1. Select file, press F2.
2. Hold alt key and type 0160 from the numpad.
3. Release the alt key. Now without doing anything else, again hold alt key and press 0160.
4. Press enter and you will have second nameless file in the same directory.
5. Repeat step 3 to create as many nameless files or folders in the same directory.

11) Delete or Remove Recycle bin Icon from Desktop

If you are the kind of person who always likes neatness specially desktop, then here is a small trick for you that will simply remove the Recycle bin icon from desktop.

Follow the steps below:

[Start] [Run] [Regedit]
Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Explorer\BitBucket

Modify/Create the Value Data Type(s) and Value Name(s) as detailed below.

Data Type: DWORD // Value Name: NukeOnDelete

Setting for Value Data: [0 = Use Recycle Bin / 1 = Permanently Delete]
Exit Registry and Reboot

Another Method
start->run->gpedit.msc-> user configuration ->desktop->remove recycle bin from desktop->double click->change it not configured to enable->apply and ok.

now come to start->run->gpupdate.exe and press enter.

your recycle bin icon is gone from desktop nad you will need to revert your settings for get that back.

after reverting setting make sure to run gpupdate.exe command.

12)Disable Turn Off option in windows xp

Disable Turn Off Option ..and ALT+F4 option

REGEDIT->HKEY_CURRENT_USER->SOFTWARE->MICROSOFT->

WINDOWS->POLICIES->EXPLORER

THEN GO TO RIGHT SIDE AND BY RIGHT CLICK OF UR MOUSE CREATE NEW DWORD VALUE WITH NAME NoClose and after creating click on it and give Value Data 1.

And Reboot your pc ..now your Turn Off option is disabled ..to Enable it again ..go to that directory by regedit ..and simply delete that created NoClose and Log Off Your User and Log in again ..your Turn off Again Working.

13)Hide 'User Accounts' from users

Go to Start/Run, and type:
GPEDIT.MSC
Open the path

User Config > Admin Templates > Control Panel
doubleclick "Hide specified Control Panel applets"
put a dot in 'enabled', then click 'Show"
click Add button,

type "nusrmgt.cpl" into the add box

14)Rename Multiple files at once

When you download photos from your digital camera, they often have unrecognizable names. You can rename several similar files at once with the following procedure. This also works for renaming other types of files.

1.Open the My Pictures folder. (Click Start, and then click My Pictures.) Or open another folder containing files that you want to rename.

2.Select the files you want to rename. If the files you want are not adjacent in the file list, press and hold CTRL, and then click each item to select it.

3.On the File menu, click Rename.

4.Type the new name, and then press ENTER.

All of the files in the series will be named in sequence using the new name you type. For example, if you type Birthday, the first will be named Birthday and subsequent files in the series will be named Birthday (1), Birthday (2), and so on. To specify the starting number for the series, type the starting number in parentheses after the new file name. The files in the series will be numbered in sequence starting with the number you type. For example, if you type Birthday (10), the other files will be named Birthday (11), Birthday (12), and so on.

15)Changing or Customize My Computer Drive Icon

In this trick i will show you how to change the drive icons that appear in Mycomputer.

For this you need an icon image i.e.; with extension "ICO" example "drivea.ico"

Copy the icon file to the root of the drive.
example: c:\drivea.ico

Then create a file called: autorun.inf in the root directory c:\autorun.inf.
Simply Right click->New->Text Document. Rename it to autorun.inf (.inf is Extension)

Next open that file and type the following:

[autorun]
icon=drivea.ico

Save and close the file.

Now open my computer and refresh.. and woh! icon changed....
you can apply to other drives too.

Note:
"autorun.inf" and "ico.ico" must be in the root of the drive.
example: c:\autorun.inf and c:\drivea.ico.
same on the root.

16)Make Undeletable Or Unreadable Folders

Make Undeletable Or Unreadable Folders

By holding down alt, then typing numbers on the number pad (right of the keyboard) you can create special characters. If you hold down alt, then press 1, then let go, you got the ascii character 1. You try some randomn numbers. This goes all the way up to 255. Open a dos prompt, and type md (alt+1+9+4)someword. md is the dos command to make a directoy, now try and open the directory in Windows, you can't. To open it, type ren (alt+1+9+4)someword someword (ren is the dos command to rename).

17)Change or Add user Restrictions in windows

If you want to make restrictions to what users can do or use on their computer, you can edit the Registry. You can add and delete Windows features in this Key shown below.

Zero is Off and the value 1 is On. Example: to Save Windows settings add or modify the value name NoSaveSettings to 0, if set to1 Windows will not save settings. And NoDeletePrinter set to 1 will prevent the user from deleting a printer.

The same key shows up at:
HKEY_USERS\(yourprofilename)\Software\Microsoft\Windows\

CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer so change it there also if you are using different profiles.

1.Open RegEdit

2.Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Policies

3.Go to the Explorer Key (Additional keys that can be created under Policies are System, Explorer, Network and WinOldApp )

4.You can then add DWORD or binary values set to 1 in the appropriate keys for ON and 0 for off.

NoDeletePrinter - Disables Deletion of Printers
NoAddPrinter - Disables Addition of Printers
NoRun - Disables Run Command
NoSetFolders - Removes Folders from Settings on Start Menu
NoSetTaskbar - Removes Taskbar from Settings on Start Menu
NoFind - Removes the Find Command
NoDrives - Hides Drives in My Computers
NoNetHood - Hides the Network Neighborhood
NoDesktop - Hides all icons on the Desktop
NoClose - Disables Shutdown
NoSaveSettings - Don't save settings on exit
DisableRegistryTools - Disable Registry Editing Tools
NoRecentDocsMenu - Hides the Documents shortcut at the Start button
NoRecentDocsHistory- Clears history of Documents
NoFileMenu _ Hides the Files Menu in Explorer
NoActiveDesktop - No Active Desktop
NoActiveDesktopChanges- No changes allowed
NoInternetIcon - No Internet Explorer Icon on the Desktop
NoFavoritesMenu - Hides the Favorites menu
NoChangeStartMenu _ Disables changes to the Start Menu
NoFolderOptions _ Hides the Folder Options in the Explorer
ClearRecentDocsOnExit - Empty the recent Docs folder on reboot
NoLogoff - Hides the Log Off .... in the Start Menu.

And here are a few more you can play with
ShowInfoTip
NoTrayContextMenu
NoStartMenuSubFolders
NoWindowsUpdate
NoViewContextMenu
EnforceShellExtensionSecurity
LinkResolveIgnoreLinkInfo
NoDriveTypeAutoRun
NoStartBanner
NoSetActiveDesktop
EditLevel
NoNetConnectDisconnect
RestrictRun - Disables all exe programs except those listed in the RestrictRun subkey

This key has many other available keys, there is one to even hide the taskbar, one to hide the control panel and more. I'm not telling you how, as someone may want to play a trick on you. The policies key has a great deal of control over how and what program can run and how one can access what feature.

In the System key you can enter:
NoDispCPL - Disable Display Control Panel
NoDispBackgroundPage - Hide Background Page
NoDispScrSavPage - Hide Screen Saver Page
NoDispAppearancePage - Hide Appearance Page
NoDispSettingsPage - Hide Settings Page
NoSecCPL - Disable Password Control Panel
NoPwdPage - Hide Password Change Page
NoAdminPage - Hide Remote Administration Page
NoProfilePage - Hide User Profiles Page
NoDevMgrPage - Hide Device Manager Page
NoConfigPage - Hide Hardware Profiles Page
NoFileSysPage - Hide File System Button
NoVirtMemPage - Hide Virtual Memory Button

In the Network key you can enter:
NoNetSetup - Disable the Network Control Panel
NoNetSetupIDPage - Hide Identification Page
NoNetSetupSecurityPage - Hide Access Control Page
NoFileSharingControl - Disable File Sharing Controls
NoPrintSharing - Disable Print Sharing Controls

In the WinOldApp key you can enter:
Disabled - Disable MS-DOS Prompt
NoRealMode - Disables Single-Mode MS-DOS

To add or remove programs in the Registry
1.Open RegEdit

2.Go to the desired Key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

3. Add a new String Value and name it anything you like
4. For the value data, enter the path and executable for the program you want to run.

By adding the value to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive instead allows the program to start only when that user is logged on.

If you add the value to the RunOnce key the program will run once and be removed from the key by Windows.

18)

Add Or Stop Programs During Startup

You can start or stop programs from executing at boot up by adding or deleting them to/from the run Keys in the Registry. Windows loads programs to start in the following order; Program listed in the Local Machine hive, then the Current User hive, then theWin.ini Run= and Load = lines. then finally programs in your Start Up folder.

To add or remove programs in the Registry
1.Open Regedit Start-->Run-->regedit

2.Go to the desired Key
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices

3. Add a new String Value and name it anything you like

4. For the value data, enter the path and executable for the program you want to run.

By adding the value to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive instead allows the program to start only when that user is logged on.
If you add the value to the RunOnce key the program will run once and be removed from the key by Windows.