Windows XP - Edit item/shortcut icon on Quick Launch bar

Yea it's true, you can modify or add an item to your Quick Launch bar (image above). You can simply drag and drop the shortcut icons onto it or for some Win XP user, they prefer to open the Quick Launch folder and edit it in the normal explorer window.

Open your Run windows (Windows + R), insert %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch and press ENTER.

You should be able to see the Quick Launch folder right now and you can start add, delete or modify any existing shortcut icons in it. The newly created shortcut should be reflect in the Quick Launch area in the Taskbar.

If your Quick Launch bar is not displayed, right-click an empty area on the taskbar > Toolbars and click Quick Launch.


Another way to enable your Quick launch is right-click an empty area on taskbar > Properties and check the Show Quick Launch check box.

With the one click feature, Quick Launch bar makes it easy to access frequently used programs like Firefox, Media Player, your PacMan game or anything. Besides, with one click on Show Desktop icon, you can minimizes all the programs on your desktop.

I hope this tip useful for you guys. That's all....Yeahhh!!!

Credits: WinXPTutor

Windows XP - Create one click shutdown shortcut

Let’s go for XP tip for today. But before that, as you can see, I have used a custom domain for my blog. I’ve moved my blog from http://dx-xel.blogspot.com/ to http://dx-xel.net/. All of my previous blog URLs will be redirect to my brand new domain. It was pretty cool. Hehe.. Next time, I will show you step by step on how I move my blog to my own domain.

Ok, back to the topic. This is how you can create a shortcut on your desktop and when ever you click at it, your Windows will be shutdown.

Step 1

Right click on your desktop > New > Shortcut


Step 2

You will see a pop-up window. Enter SHUTDOWN -s -t 01

Note: Enter c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows (if you’re using Windows95, Windows98 or ME)

Click the Next button and name the shortcut as Shutdown, Turn Off, Stop or whatever. Then click Finish. DONE.

Optional:

1. You can make a keyboard shortcut for that icon and by pressing them, you will be able to shutdown Windows. Right click to that shortcut icon > Properties. Click the Shortcut key’s textbox and press the combination of keys that you prefer (e.g. Ctrl-Alt-Q)

Click the Apply button and then OK.

2. You also can change the shortcut icon. (Image at the top). Right click to the shortcut > Properties and click the Change Icon… button. Select any icon you prefer, click OK. Then, click the Apply and OK button.

By now, you should be able to shutdown Windows with a single click. That’s all for today…Yeahh!!!

Credits: Wowarea

Windows XP - Remove cached run command lists

Ok, a quick Win XP tip for today. Maybe some of you guys has been using a lot of windows run commands and would like to remove the cached lists (image above).

Here is how you can easily delete or get rid of them:-

Step 1

Open your Registry Editor. Go to Start>Run (Windows+R), type regedit and press ENTER.


Step 2

Navigate to the following key:-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/
Explorer/RunMRU

Ok, by now, you should see the value corresponding to the command that you have used. To remove it, just right click (the one with label a, b, c, d and so on) and select Delete. See image below:-

Restart your machine. Your cached run commands should be gone right now.

That’s all. Yeahh!!!

Credits: Wowarea

Windows XP - Remove the Scheduled Tasks & Printers and Faxes folders

Ok, it's time for Win XP tips. When you browse your computer on the network/workgroup share folder window, you will notice these 2 folders will appear automatically; Scheduled Tasks & Printers and Faxes folders (see image above). Maybe you'd like to see your computer share folder window looks clean or empty. There is no way you can right click on it and then delete the folder icon. This is how you can delete those folders or easy to say...get rid of them.

Simply follow these steps:-

Step 1

Open your Registry window. Go to Run (Windows+R) type regedit and press ENTER.


Step 2

Navigate to the following key:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\RemoteComputer \NameSpace

and you will see something like below:-

You will see some key values. Ok, now for the important part.

To remove the Scheduled Tasks folder, delete the following key:

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

and to remove the Printers and Faxes folder, delete the following key:

{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Close your Registry window. DONE.

Go to your computer network window and those folders should be gone right now.

By the way, you still can see them on Control Panel. Go to Run (Windows+R) type control.exe and press ENTER.

If you want to recreate those folders on you computer share folder window, go to the Registry window again and navigate to the same key as above:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\RemoteComputer \NameSpace

Select the NameSpace folder. Go to Edit > New > Key (see image below).

If you want to recreate the Scheduled Tasks folder, copy/paste the following key:

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

and if you want to recreate the Printers and Faxes folder, copy/paste the following key:

{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-08002B30309D}

Note: You will see the New Key #1 after creating the new Key. Just replace them with above Key.

Yeahhh..that's all for today!!!

Credits: WinXPTutor

Windows XP - Customize Folder Background

Ok, just a simple Win XP tip for today. If you have an experience using Windows 98 before, you will notice that there are an option or wizard to customize and change the folder background image. Unfortunately, this cool feature does not exist in Windows XP. No worry, in this short article, I will show you how easy it is to customize your folder background in XP.

Step 1

First thing first, download this utility tool, IESHWIZ


Step 2

After that, extract IESHWIZ.zip to C:\Windows\System32 folder. This zip file will extract the ieshwiz.exe file into System32 folder.


Step 3

Next, open a command prompt (Windows+R and then type cmd, press ENTER), and type:-

IESHWIZ <path:\foldername>

E.g:- To customize the "test" folder in drive D:, type IESHWIZ D:\test and press ENTER.

Note: In this tip, I will using the "test" folder in my local drive D:


Step 4

You will see a popup window and something like below:-

Select the Choose a background picture. Click Next.


Step 5

I will make some settings like below:-

I used my dX-Vista Maniac as a background image..hehe..Click Browse and you can select either a .bmp, .jpeg or .gif image. Click Next and Finish.

Done. Now go to the "test" folder in D: and you can see if the changes are applied.

All of the these settings are stored in a file named Desktop.ini within that folder. You can read more about Desktop.ini on MSDN website.

Note: If you want to remove all the settings that you've made before, simply follow the step above from Step 1 to 4. But in Step 4, please select the Remove Customization. Click Next and Finish.

*Another alternative that I've just found out was, you can extract the IESHWIZ.zip file in the folder which you want to make a changes. Just run the ieshwiz.exe file and start the customization. E.g:- Extract the IESHWIZ.zip into our "test" folder.

That's all for today! Yeahh!!

Credits: Ramesh's site

How to rename Recycle Bin in Windows XP?

Ok, just a quick simple XP tips for today. Last time, I wrote a post about removing Recycle Bin icon from desktop. Maybe you just want to rename your Recycle Bin instead of deleting it.

Take this simple steps:-

Open your Registry Editor. Go to Run (Windows+R), type regedit and press ENTER.

Then go to:-

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

Note: For faster navigation, press C on your keyboard while selecting the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT folder.

You may have something like below:-

Double click the (Default) and you will see the Value Data: Recycle Bin. Change the Value Data to Trash or whatever you want.

Click OK and close your Registry Editor. Restart your PC. By now, your Recycle Bin icon's name should be changed.

Yeahh..that's all!

Credits: freePCtech

Windows XP - Convert FAT32 file system into NTFS

Ok guys...a simple Win XP tips for today. It's really easy to convert your Volume/Local Disk that have FAT32 (File Allocation Table) file system to NTFS (New Technology File System).

To view your drive file system, simply go to My Computer > right click on your drive and click Properties.

Take this simple steps:-

Step 1

Open your Command Prompt. To open it, press Window + R, type cmd and hit ENTER.


Step 2

Type convert D: /fs:ntfs and hit ENTER. That's all. I used the Local Drive D: as an example. Please note that you cannot convert your Local Drive where you placed your Operating System(OS) files on it (Default OS drive was on C:).


Why do you need to convert your volume to NTFS?

Ok..a quick lists of the advantages and also the disadvantages of using the NTFS.


ADVANTAGES of NTFS

Recoverability
The recoverability designed into NTFS is such that a user should seldom have to run a disk repair program on an NTFS volume. NTFS guarantees the consistency of the volume by using standard transaction logging and recovery techniques.

In the event of a system failure, NTFS uses its log file and checkpoint information to automatically restore the consistency of the file system. For more information about recovering your system, restoring data, and creating an emergency repair disk (ERD), please visit this page.

Compression
Windows 2000 supports compression on an individual file basis for NTFS volumes. Files that are compressed on an NTFS volume can be read and written by any Windows-based application without first being decompressed by another program. Decompression happens automatically during the read of the file. The file is compressed again when it is closed or saved.

In addition, formatting your volumes with NTFS instead of FAT16 or FAT32 provides the following advantages:

• There are some Windows 2000 operating system features that require NTFS.
• Faster access speed. NTFS minimizes the number of disk accesses required to find a file.
• File and folder security. On NTFS volumes, you can set file permissions on files and folders that specify which groups and users have access to them, and what level of access is permitted. NTFS file and folder permissions apply both to users working at the computer where the file is stored and to users accessing the file over the network when the file is in a shared folder. With NTFS you can also set share permissions that operate on shared folders in combination with file and folder permissions.
• Windows 2000 can format volumes up to 2 terabytes in size with NTFS.
• The boot sector is backed up to a sector at the end of the volume.
• NTFS supports a native encryption system called Encrypting File System (EFS), using public-key security to prevent unauthorized access to file contents.
• NTFS functionality can be extended by using reparse points, enabling new features such as volume mount points.
• Disk quotas can be set, limiting the amount of space users can consume on an NTFS volume.

DISADVANTAGES of NTFS

While NTFS is the recommended file system for users of Windows 2000, it is not appropriate in all circumstances. Disadvantages of NTFS include:

• NTFS volumes are not accessible in MS-DOS, Windows 95, and Windows 98. Due to upgrades made to NTFS in Windows 2000, the advanced features of the Windows 2000 implementation of NTFS are not available in Windows NT 4.0 and earlier.
• When very small volumes contain mostly small files, the overhead of managing NTFS may cause a slight performance drop in comparison to FAT.

That's all for today..I hope you enjoy this post.

Note:

1. You can use this tips to convert the FAT volume to NTFS.
2. You cannot convert the drive from NTFS to FAT or FAT32. To do this, you have to reformat you local disk or partition. Make sure you make a backup first.
3. To view the other convert commands, type help convert to your Command Prompt and press ENTER.

Credits: Microsoft, WinXpFix

Windows XP - Remove Recycle Bin icon from Desktop

Ok, a quick tips for today. There are some icon on your Desktop that cannot be removed and maybe you would like to remove them. For example Recycle Bin. This is how it's done.

First thing first, run your Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\Desktop\NameSpace

You may see some thing like this:-

After that, find this value:-

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

and delete it. Done.

Go to your Desktop and refresh(F5). Your Recycle Bin icon should now be gone.

To recreate you Recycle Bin icon, simply follow this step. At the same path, select the NameSpace folder and go to Edit > New > Key

and copy/paste the value above:-

Go to your Desktop and refresh. Your Recycle Bin icon should be right there.

Ok, maybe you'd like to remove the other Desktop object. Check out this lists:-

My Computer: {20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Recycle Bin: {645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Microsoft Outlook: {00020D75-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

Internet Explorer: {FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}

The Internet: {3DC7A020-0ACD-11CF-A9BB-00AA004AE837}

My Network Places: {208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-08002B30309D}

Briefcase: {85BBD920-42A0-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Dial-Up Networking: {992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD010CCC48}


Yeahh...that's all for today. Have fun!

XP Registry - Speed up shutdown time

Do you any problem on Windows shutdown time? Ok, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up your Windows XP shutdown process.

Step 1

Paging file (pagefile.sys) - Don't have XP clear at shutdown.

The paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown, because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn't a high priority, you might not want to clear it. To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won't be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

Step 2

Reduce the amount of time Windows will take to kill open applications on shutdown.

Part 1 - Go to :

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\


Change the value of WaitToKillAppTimeout to 1000. And then,


change the value of HungAppTimeout to 1000 also.


Part 2 - Go to :

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop

Change the value of WaitToKillAppTimeout to 1000. And then,

change the value of HungAppTimeout to 1000 also.


Part 3 - Go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\

Change the value of WaitToKillServiceTimeout to 1000.

Step 3

Non-responsive applications - Allow XP to close it automatically upon shutdown

Go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop

Change the value of AutoEndTasks to 1.

So, how was it for you? I hope you find this tips really useful. On next entry, I will show you how to speed up XP boot time. Yeahhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Fully transform your Windows XP into a Vista look-alike

Intro..Please watch this video first...hehe

Yeahh..I know..people is talking about Windows Vista right now...Vista..Vista..and Vista..Well, there is no more Windows XP in 2008 and Microsoft will stop selling them to PC. Ok, stop talking about that. Now, I'll show you how to transform your XP into a Vista look-alike.

1. Get the tools

- Vista Transformation Pack Final
- Top Desk for Flip 3-D
- Boot Skin to change Windows boot screen (optional)

2. Installation

Ok, install all of the options offered in the Vista Transformation Pack. And one more thing, you may skip the Vista boot screen because it looks quite..hmm..how to say..not really cool. You can use Boot Skin program to apply for your almost stylish looking Vista screens are found on Devianart.

3. Customization


- After step 2, you'll need to enable a few things to get the Vista explorer bar (as shown above). First, open up my computer, and click on the 'view' menu. Under View > Toolbars uncheck all the view options, but enable 'styler toolbar'.

- To get rid of the file menu bar, go to your the task tray and right click on the icon for "styler". Choose the toolbar tab, and check 'hide menubar explorer'.

- Also while in the options for 'styler' choose the desktop tab. Here you'll want to enable drop shadow (use default). This gives the windows a nice shadow as found in Vista. Feel free to enable other options which pertain to your particular taste.

- Right-click on your desktop and choose properties and select the 'appearance' tab and then select 'effects'. Make sure that 'cleartype' is enabled, as well as the 'use large icons' box. This will give you the large icon set now used in Vista.

- Complete your new makeover with a complimenting Vista Firefox theme

- I assume that you already watch the video, then you've seen Flip 3D in action. If you want it, simply download Top Desk.

I think that's all right now. By installing this software, it might be slow down your system. But, it's worth enough to get a Vista look-alike. So, what do you think?

Credits: Vistaonmac

Remove ugly arrows from shortcut

Want to make your desktop shortcut icon look beautiful? Check this out:-

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

' script start

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

' script end.

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

Related :- How to remove arrows from shortcut?