Put a Command-Line Prompt on Your Desktop
2007-08-12 21:21:00
Command-line junkies always want the command prompt within easy reach. Here's how to put a command prompt directly on your desktop, so it's there whenever you need it.If you use the command line regularlyfor example, to launch Windows Explorer with shortcuts you'd like the command line within easy reach. In fact, you'd like it right on your desktop. XP has no built-in way to do that for you.But there's a great free program called MCL (http://www.mlin.net/MCL.shtml) that runs as a small command line you can put anywhere on your desktop, as shown in Figure 3-22.Figure 3-22. Putting the command line right on your desktop with MCLUse it as you would use the normal command line, including any normal switches that you use to launch programs.But MCL does more than just let you enter commands. It includes a number of other goodies that the XP command prompt doesn't, including these:It keeps a history of your last 100 commands, so you can easily reenter or edit any commands you've alrea
Read more: Prompt
, Desktop
Find Files Faster by Mastering the Indexing Service's Query Language
2007-08-12 21:14:00
Got a hard disk filled with many files, and no easy way to find what you want quickly? Use the Indexing
Service
and its query language to get what you wantfast.Packrats like me (and my editor) have a hard time finding exactly what they want on their hard disks. I have thousands of files there, some dating back close to 10 years, which I dutifully copy to a new system every time I upgrade my hardware. After all, who knows when I might need to find the list of books I planned to take out of the library in 1996?XP's Search Companion is too slow and the kinds of searches it can perform are fairly limited. It can't find files based on properties such as when the file was last printed or the word count of a file, or using a sophisticated search language.The Indexing Service, first used with Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), is a far more powerful tool. It can perform searches hundreds of times faster and includes an exceedingly sophisticated query language you can use for perf
Read more: Mastering
, Query
Remove "Uninstallable" XP Utilities
2007-08-12 01:58:00
Think you can't uninstall Windows Messenger, WordPad, and similar components? Think again. This hack shows you how.Windows has always had a problem with uninstalling software, and it's particularly poor at uninstalling its own utilities, such as WordPad or Windows Messenger. Uninstalling these utilities can free up hard-disk space if your hard disk is starting to fill up. And if you never use Windows Messenger, you most likely will want to uninstall it because the program frequently launches itself automatically even after you've shut it down repeatedly, kind of like Dracula returning from the dead. It won't bother you any longer if you uninstall it.To remove XP utilities and components, you normally choose Control Panel Add or Remove Programs Add/Remove Windows Components to get to the Windows Components Wizard, shown in Figure 2-12. To uninstall a utility or component, just follow the wizard's instructions.Figure 2-12. The Windows Components WizardAh, but there's a catch. A n
Read more: Utilities
Hide Only Certain Icons in the Notification Area
2007-08-12 01:53:00
You might want to display some icons in the notification area but hide others. If so, you can hide icons on a case-by-case basis. You'll do it by delving through menus, though, not by hacking the Registry. Right-click the taskbar and choose Properties Taskbar. The Taskbar and Start Menu Properties dialog box appears. This dialog box, as the name implies, lets you control how the taskbar and Start menu look and function.In the Notification area of the dialog box, check the box next to "Hide inactive icons," then click Customize. The Customize Notifications dialog box appears.Figure 2-9. Hiding inactive iconsClick the program's listing in the Behavior column, and choose from the drop-down menu to hide the icon when the program is inactive, to always hide it, or to never hide it (see Figure 2-9). Click OK twice. Your changes will take effect immediately.
Read more: Icons
Hide All Icons in the Notification Area
2007-08-12 01:52:00
The system tray, also called the notification area, is the small area on the far-right side of the taskbar, in which utilities and programs that run in the background, such as antivirus software, show their icons.I don't find it a particularly intelligent use of screen real estate, so I prefer not to see the icons there. To hide them, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer. Among other things, this key controls the display of objects throughout XP. Create a new DWORD called NoTrayItemsDisplay. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icons displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot.While you're at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Explorer key, you can also delete the My Recent Documents icon on the Start menu. Create a new DWORD called NoRecentDocsMenu. Assign it a value of 1. (A value of 0 will keep the icon displayed.) Exit the Registry and reboot
Read more: Icons
Display Control Panel Applets in a Cascading Menu
2007-08-11 06:50:00
If you're a "just the facts, ma'am" type, you'll want to bypass the Control
Panel
altogether. Rather than clicking effete icons, you can instead force XP to display Control Panel applets in a cascading menu when you choose Control Panel from the Start button, as shown in Figure 2-4.Figure 2-4. Turning the Control Panel into a cascading menu for quick access to appletsTo force the Control Panel to display as a cascading menu, right-click the taskbar and choose Properties Start Menu. Click the Customize button and choose the Advanced tab. In the Control Panel heading, choose "Display
as a menu." Click OK twice.
Read more: Cascading
Hide Unused Applets with the Registry
2007-08-11 06:40:00
Whether you're a fan of the new Control Panel or not, there's a lot you can do to make it more palatablelike hiding applets you never use, recategorizing the ones you do use, and displaying all applets in a simple-to-use cascading menu.When I first started using XP, one of the things that annoyed me most was its new Control Panel. Yes, the big new icons for running applets are certainly pretty, but the Control Panel's several-layer organization forces you to click far too many times to get to the applet you want. And its clutter of applets that I rarely, if ever, use makes it even more difficult and confusing.My first reaction was to click the Switch to Classic View button to do away with the new design, but the Classic View has its problems as well: its long, alphabetized list of thumbnails is just as difficult to navigate as the new Control Panel.The solution? Start by cleaning up the Control Panel, hiding applets that you rarely, if ever, use. Note that when you hide the applets,
Read more: Registry
Customize the GUI with Tweak UI
2007-08-11 06:30:00
Want to bend XP's interface to your will without getting your hands into the Registry or having to excavate through menus three levels deep? Then get this supremely useful freebie from Microsoft and create your own customized version of XP.There are countless ways to customize XP's interface, including Registry hacks and menus and options hidden four layers deep. But if you're the kind of person who lives in the express lane, juices up on double espressos, and wants to hack away at the interface fast, you need Tweak
UI. Download Tweak UI for free from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp. It's part of a suite of free, unsupported utilities from Microsoft called XP PowerToys, but it's far and away the best one.Tweak UI lets you tweak not only the interface, as the title suggests, but also many other system settings, such as how Internet Explorer's search works, whether to automate your logon upon system startup, and whether to enable CD autop
Create Multiple Startup Profiles with Advanced Startup Manager
2007-08-10 21:15:00
If you need to start different programs on startup, depending on what you need to do on your PC, create different startup profiles with this startup utility.With the hacks covered in this chapter, you can customize how XP starts up. But there's one thing these hacks won't be able to do for youcreate different startup profiles. For that, you need downloadable software.Let's say, for example, you have a laptop that you sometimes run attached to a keyboard, monitor, and an always-on Internet connection, and other times you travel with it, so it is not connected to the Internet. When you use it when you travel, you use it primarily in airplanes, airports, and other places where you typically aren't connected to the Internet. You also run a piece of monitoring software that will send a signal to a call center if your laptop is stolen. You don't need to run that software when you're not on the road.Ideally, you would have one set of programs that run automatically at home and another s
Read more: Multiple
, Startup
, Profiles
Halt Startup Programs and Services
2007-08-10 21:04:00
Increase your PC's performance and speed up startup times by shutting off applications and services that you don't need.One of the best ways to speed up your PC without having to spend money for extra RAM is to stop unnecessary programs and services from running whenever you start your PC. When too many programs and services run automatically every time you start up your system, startup itself takes a long time, and too many programs and services running simultaneously can bog down your CPU and hog your memory.Some programs, such as antivirus software, should run automatically at startup and always run on your computer. But many other programs, such as instant messenger software, serve no purpose by being run at startup. And while you need a variety of background services running on your PC for XP to function, there are many unnecessary services that run on startup. For example, on many systems, the Wireless Zero Configuration Service runs to automatically configure a WiFi (802.11) n
Read more: Startup
, Programs
, Services
Speed Up Boot and Shutdown Times
2007-08-10 12:28:00
Shorten the time it takes for your desktop to appear when you turn on your PC, and make XP shut down faster as well.No matter how fast your PC boots, it's not fast enough. Here are several hacks to get you right to your desktop as quickly as possible after startup.1.4.1. Perform a Boot DefragmentThere's a simple way to speed up XP startup: make your system do a boot defragment, which will put all the boot files next to one another on your hard disk. When boot files are in close proximity to one another, your system will start faster.On most systems, boot defragment should be enabled by default, but it might not be on yours, or it might have been changed inadvertently. To make sure that boot defragment is enabled on your system, run the Registry Editor [Hack #83] and go to:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftDfrgBootOptimizeFunctionEdit the Enable string value to Y if it is not already set to Y. Exit the Registry and reboot. The next time you reboot, you'll do a boot defragment. I
Read more: Speed
, Shutdown
, Times
Change the Picture That Appears on the XP Startup Screen
2007-08-10 12:24:00
You're not stuck with XP's default splash logo on the startup screen; use any picture or logo of your choosing.One of the nice things about XP is how malleable it is. Don't like the way it looks? No problem; change it. Take my splash screen, please! The techniques in this hack work only with versions of XP before SP2. If you have SP2, they won't work, and they could harm your system. If you have SP2 and want to change your boot screen, your best bet is to use downloadable software, such as Style XP from Tgtsoft at http://www.tgtsoft.com/download.php. Many people, myself included, would prefer to see a more interesting splash screen (also called the startup screen) than the default gives you on startup. You can change your splash screen to any of hundreds that have been created, or make one of your ownfor example, with your picture or company logo on it.To choose from already created splash screens, go to http://www.themexp.org and click Boot Screens. You'll find more than 1,000 of
Read more: Startup
, Change
, Picture
, Appears
Customize Multiboot Startup Options
2007-08-10 12:06:00
Edit or create a startup menu that lets you choose which operating system to boot into in multiboot systems, or create a menu that lets you choose different startup options for your single operating system if you have only XP installed.If you've installed another operating system (in addition to XP) on your system, your PC starts up with a multiboot menu, which allows you to choose the operating system you want to run. The menu stays live for 30 seconds, and a screen countdown tells you how long you have to make a choice from the menu. After the 30 seconds elapse, it boots into your default operating system, which is generally the last operating system you installed.You can customize that multiboot menu and how your PC starts by editing the boot.ini file, a hidden system file, to control a variety of startup options, including how long to display the menu, which operating system should be the default, whether to use the XP splash screen when XP starts, and similar features. And as you
Read more: Startup
, Options
Give More Time for Processes to Close at Shutdown
2007-06-21 06:34:00
When you shut down Windows, XP gives each process, service, or application 20 seconds to close before the operating system turns off the computer. If the process, service, or application doesn't shut down within 20 seconds, a dialog box appears, prompting you to either wait 20 more seconds, immediately end the process, service, or application, or cancel shutdown.If this dialog box appears frequently, you might be running an application, service, or process that often takes more than 20 seconds to close. To solve the problem, you can increase the amount of time that XP waits to display the dialog box so that the dialog box will no longer appear. To do so, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. Look for the String value WaitToKillAppTimeout. Edit the value by entering the amount of time you want XP to wait before displaying the dialog box, in milliseconds. The default is 20000, or 20 seconds. If you want XP to wait 25 seconds, enter the value 25000. E
Read more: Shutdown
, Close
Stop Error Messages from Displaying on Startup
2007-06-15 23:36:00
If you constantly see an error message that you can't get rid offor example, from a piece of software that didn't uninstall properly and continues to give errors on startupyou can disable it from displaying on startup. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlWindows. (This key holds a variety of Windows system settings, such as the location of your system directory.) Create a new DWORD called NoPopupsOnBoot and give it a value of 1. Exit the Registry and reboot for the setting to take effect. To disable it, either delete the DWORD value or give it a value of 0.
Read more: Startup
Automatically Turn On Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock
2007-06-14 21:25:00
When you start your PC, Num Lock, Scroll
Lock, and Caps Lock don't automatically toggle on. You can automatically turn each of them on or off whenever your PC starts, for all accounts on the PC. As a practical matter, most people probably want to have only Num Lock automatically turned on, but this Registry hack allows you to force any combination of keys on or off. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_USERS.DefaultControl PanelKeyboard. Find the String value InitialKeyboardIndicators. By default, it is set to 0, which means that Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock are all turned off. Set it to any of the following values, depending on the combination of keys you want turned on or off:0Turns off Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock1Turns on Caps Lock2Turns on Num Lock3Turns on Caps Lock and Num Lock4Turns on Scroll Lock5Turns on Caps Lock and Scroll Lock6Turns on Num Lock and Scroll Lock7Turns on Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll LockExit the Registry. When you restart, the new se
Read more: Automatically
Create One-Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts
2007-06-13 17:20:00
Turning off or rebooting XP involves a several-step process: click the Start menu, choose Shut Down, and then select Shut Down or Restart. If you want, however, you can exit or reboot much more quickly, by creating a shortcut that enables one-click shutdowns. You can also use the shortcut to customize the shutdown or rebootfor example, by displaying a specific message or automatically shutting down any programs that are running.First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, double-clicking it will shut down your PC.But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Reboot
ing your PC"Double-clicking that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and di
Read more: Shutdown
, Click
, Shortcuts
Hide Components You Don't Want to Be Uninstalled
2007-06-12 02:00:00
You can use this same technique in reverse to hide components you don't want to be uninstalled accidentally. Simply put the word HIDE in the proper place in the entry that you don't want to show up in the Windows Components
Wizard. For example, if you want to hide the uninstall entry for the fax utility, edit its entry by changing:Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7to:Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,HIDE,7
Hack the Start Menu and Taskbar
2007-05-25 07:51:00
XP Professional's Group Policy Editor gives you instant access to changing more than three dozen interface settings. Here's how to use it to create your own personalized Start
menu and taskbar.XP Professional's Group Policy Editor does more than just customize the Control Panel ; it gives you control over many aspects of XP's interface as wellin particular, the Start menu and taskbar. In fact, it gives you quick access to more than three dozen separate settings for them.Run the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc at the Run prompt or command line. Go to User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesStart Menu and Taskbar. As you can see in Figure 2-5, the right pane displays all the settings you can change. If you click the Extended tab at the bottom of the screen, you'll be shown a description of the setting that you've highlighted, along with an explanation of each option. Settings you can customize include showing the My Pictures icon, the Run menu, and the My Music icon on
Clean Up the Most Frequently Used Programs List
2007-05-23 01:34:00
Make this infrequently used tool useful. Ban programs from the Most Frequently Used Programs
List, change the number of programs on the list, or do away with it altogether to make more room for the Pinned Programs List.Windows keeps track of programs you use frequently and puts them on the Most Frequently Used Programs List, which appears on the new Windows XP-style Start menu (not the Classic-style Start menu) between the Pinned Items List at the top and the All Programs link at the bottom. The Most Frequently Used Programs List is a quick way to access programs you use often. But the rules for when programs appear on that list and disappear from the list are murky at best, and there appears to be no logic to what programs appear there.There is some hidden logic, however. XP bans a variety of programs from the list. If any of the following words or phrases is included in the program's shortcut name, the program will be excluded from the list: Documentation, Help, Install, More Info,
Read more: Clean
Build Customized Control Panels
2007-05-21 17:25:00
Armed with all this Control
Panel hackery, you can build customized Control Panels. For example, you can build a Control Panel for computer newbies, which hides the more technical applets and categories. Hide the applets in the Network and Internet Connections category, the Performance and Maintenance category, and the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices categorythat way, newbies can't get into trouble by making changes that will affect the system in unexpected ways.For system administrators, group all system-type applets into a single category, such as Network and Internet Connections. You'd probably want to keep all the existing applets there, but also add the Administrative Tools, Scheduled Tasks, and System applets to it, as well as the Printers and Faxes applet. (If the administrator has to handle other hardware, such as scanners, add the Scanners and Cameras applet as well.)For those who like to hack their systems and want instant, stripped-down access to customization tools, tak
Read more: Build
Turn Off System Beeps
2007-05-15 01:57:00
To me, system beeps that my PC makes when it encounters certain system errors are like balloon tipsgnatlike annoyances that I can do without. So, I turn them off using a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor , go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelSound, and find the Beep and ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot. The beeps will no longer sound.
Read more: System
Rename and Change "Unchangeable" Desktop Icons and System Objects
2007-05-13 03:42:00
To create the perfect XP interface, you want to be able to give every desktop icon and system object the name and icon of your choice. Here's how to do iteven to objects that appear to be unchangeable.Interface hackers (myself included) are a details-oriented bunch. We want to be able to control every part of the interface so that it reflects our personality. That means being able to choose our own icons for desktop items and system objects, give new names to system objects, and create our own balloon tipsfor example, adding a balloon tip to the Recycle Bin saying "Take out the trash!"But it's not as simple as you might think. Microsoft has a way of protecting its own. For example, it won't let you change the text and balloon tips associated with a variety of system objects, such as the Recycle Bin, Outlook, Internet Explorer, My Computer, and My Network Places.You can normally change both the name and the balloon text (text that appears when you hover your mouse over the icon) of a
Read more: Desktop
, Icons
, Change
, System
, Rename
Get More Hard-Disk Space by Using NTFS Compression
2007-08-15 02:48:00
The quickest and easiest way to give your system more room is to use XP's built-in compression scheme for NTFS disks. Here's how to use itand how to convert your existing disk to NTFS if it doesn't already use it.If you need more hard-disk space, don't buy another hard disk right away. First, consider using NTFS (NT File System) compression, which can give significantly more hard-disk space by compressing all the files on your PC. NTFS's on-the-fly compression capabilities can shrink the size of individual files and folders, or entire drives. When you use it, the files or folders will be compressed when they're on your hard disk to save space, but they will be decompressed automatically when you use them, and then compressed again when stored on your hard disk. This means that, unlike with a compression program such as WinZip (http://www.winzip.com), you don't have to deal with decompressing as well as compressing files. You can also easily turn compression on and off.Note that
Read more: Space
, Compression
Edit File Association Actions
2007-08-14 02:52:00
You can use Windows Explorer to change how XP handles file types; for example, you can choose the default action when the file type is double-clicked, choose the application associated with the file type, choose the icon for the file type, and choose whether the extension should be displayed or hidden in Windows Explorer. To perform most of these actions, choose Tools Folder Options File Types, choose the file type for which you want to customize an action, and then click Advanced. You'll see the screen shown in Figure 3-13.Figure 3-13. Editing file associations and their actionsFrom the Edit File Type dialog box, you can change the icon, edit the action to be taken on the file, and choose whether to display the file type in Windows Explorer. The dialog box is fairly self-explanatory. For example, click Change Icon to change the icon; to edit any action, highlight it and click Edit. If you want to change the application associated with the file, choose Tools Folder Options File Ty
Read more: Actions
Add Shortcut Menu Items to Specific File Types
2007-08-14 02:48:00
When you right-click a file in Explorer, you get a shortcut menu that includes a list of programs with which you can open the file. But the programs you want to open those files might not always be on the shortcut menu. It's easy to add new programs to that list. Let's say you want to add a shortcut menu item that allows .gif files to be opened with the freeware graphics viewer IrfanView . From Windows Explorer, choose Tools Folder Options File Types. In the Registered File Types list, select the file type for which you want to add a new shortcut menu item. In our example, we'll choose a GIF file. After this hack, any time you click a file of this type, you'll get a new choice to open the file with.Once you've chosen your file type, choose Advanced New. You'll see the New Action dialog box shown in Figure 3-12.Figure 3-12. Adding a new program to the shortcut menuIn the New Action box, type the text you want to appear on the shortcut menufor example, Open with IrfanView. In th
Read more: Items
, Specific
Change the Text of Internet Explorer's Titlebar
2007-08-13 21:23:00
Internet Explorer
's titlebar displays the text "Microsoft Internet Explorer
," along with the title of the page you're currently visiting. However, you can change the "Microsoft Internet Explorer" text to any text you want. Run the Registry Editor and go to:HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainAdd a new string value named Window Title and give it a value of whatever text you want displayed in the titlebar. Exit the Registry and close Internet Explorer if it's open. The next time you open Internet Explorer, the titlebar will have your new text.If you want your titlebar to have no text in it, aside from the title of the page you're currently visiting, create the Window Title string value but leave the Value field empty.
Read more: Change
, Internet
Change the Text of Internet Explorer's Titlebar
2007-08-13 21:23:00
Internet Explorer
's titlebar displays the text "Microsoft Internet Explorer
," along with the title of the page you're currently visiting. However, you can change the "Microsoft Internet Explorer" text to any text you want. Run the Registry Editor and go to:HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMainAdd a new string value named Window Title and give it a value of whatever text you want displayed in the titlebar. Exit the Registry and close Internet Explorer if it's open. The next time you open Internet Explorer, the titlebar will have your new text.If you want your titlebar to have no text in it, aside from the title of the page you're currently visiting, create the Window Title string value but leave the Value field empty.
Read more: Change
, Internet
Change the Internet Explorer Logo
2007-08-13 21:22:00
Internet Explorer
has both a static and an animated logo. The static logo displays when the browser is inactive, and the animated logo displays when the browser is locating a site, connecting, and actively downloading pages or images from the Web. Because you have the choice of displaying large or small icons on the Internet Explorer
toolbar (to switch back and forth between the two, choose View Toolbars Customize Icon Options Large/Small icons), there are two sizes of both the static and animated logos.Before you begin, you'll need to create new logos to replace the existing ones. You'll have to create two sets of icons in .bmp format: one set for the smaller logo and another set for the larger logo. Each set will have a static logo and an animated logo. The static logos should be 22 22 pixels for the smaller size and 38 38 pixels for the larger size. The animated logos have to be animated bitmaps, each of which should have a total of 10 frames. So, the smaller animated bitmap s
Read more: Change
, Internet
Remove Context Menu Items from Explorer
2007-07-24 04:54:00
Explorer's menus can get messy at times. But you can use a Registry hack to clean it up a bit by removing two items from the Tools menu: Map Network Drive and Disconnect Network Drive. Run the Registry Editor and go to:HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorerCreate the DWORD entry NoNetConnectDisconnect. Give it a value of 1. Exit the Registry. You might have to reboot for the setting to take effect and the items to disappear from the menu. To place the items back on the Explorer menu, edit the value to 0, or delete the entry.
Read more: Items
, Explorer
, Context
|
Recommend Site To A Friend
