TopTricks for Windows Xp

Disabling Scandisk

When Windows is not shut down correctly, it will perform an AutoCheck
using CHKDSK on the next restart.

AutoCheck is executed after a short time delay. AutoCheck can be
disabled or delayed by tweaking a few Registry settings.
Run ‘Regedit’ from ‘Start Menu|Run...’
Go to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|SYSTE
M|CurrentControlSet|Control|Session
Manager’.
Create a new DWORD value, or
modify the existing value, called
“AutoChkTimeOut” and set it according
to the value data below.
Value Name: AutoChkTimeOut.
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value).
Value Data: Time in Seconds or 0 to disable
(default = 10).
Exit your registry, you may need to
restart or log out of Windows for the
change to take effect.


Monitoring the system

There are various applications you can use to monitor the state of your
system at any given time. One of them is a program called CoolMon (www.coolmon.org) where you can monitor about 22 of
the most geekiest system parameters like the temperature and speed of your system fans, the number of processes running, the total available memory on your hard disk and RAM, CPU utilization, etc. Each
of these can be individually con. gured to appear on the interface. Best of all, this monitoring happens in real time. Better still, the program is free.
If you need more details than what is offered by Windows System Information or the Device Manager, try out an application called Everest Home Edition (www.lavalys.com). This application hunts through your hardware and software setup and extracts every piece of information you might need about your processor, motherboard, graphics card,
hard disk and any other piece of hardware or software information that you might care to know about your computer.


Compress drive to save disk space

its not possible to increase ur memory size but u can compress ur data to save ur disk space, this feature is available in NTFS drive..
if u have a fat or fat32 drive, u can convert it to ntfs by running a command on dos:
for c drive:
convert c:/fs:ntfs
for d drive:
convert d:/fs:ntfs
for e drive:
convert e:/fs:ntfs
run the command similarly if u have more drive...

Compresing data in NTFS

* open my computer
* select any drive(drive with NTFS format)
* right click and select properties
* click on general tab
* select "compress drive to save disk space"
* Apply and OK

ur data will remain safe...


- Changing the Location of Special Folders
You can modify the registry to change the location of special folders like:

My Documents
Favorites
My Pictures
Personal
Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders
Double click on any locations you want to change and alter the path
Logoff or restart for the changes to go into effect


Eliminating the Right Click on the Taskbar
To eliminate the right click on the taskbar:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Add a DWORD and give it a name of NoTrayContextMenu
Give it a value of 1
Reboot


Eliminating the Right Click on the Desktop
To eliminate the right click on the desktop:

Start Regedit
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer
Add a DWORD and give it a name of NoViewContextMenu
Give it a value of 1
Reboot
These are only three tricks…..there are many more available on net…..the idea here is not to teach you how to disable right click or how to change the color, fonts, looks, etc…..The basic reason why we post this chapter is to teach that if registry is the place where all the information is stored then why cant we brake passwords from here???
E.g. I install a software on my system to guard some folders which contain material which I want to hide. In order to access the folder I have to input a password, and if it is right only then I can see the content of the folder. From this example it is clear that the password is stored somewhere in the system from where the software compares the value which I enter in the password field. For this example as well as for every other software which asks for password to access the system features including the windows login password, all these values are stored in windows registry. Whenever the user enters a password, it is compared with the value stored in the system registry, and if it is found correct only then the user is allowed to access the feature. In Windows registry we can search for specific items, keys, values or software’s using the search function in edit menu. But there is one problem the password is not stored in its original form, it is converted to some other format so that no one can recognize it. E.g.; If I set the password as “hacking” it is stored as “6167453291” or may be some other form depending upon the software. In such cases what we can do is reset the password i.e. delete the value (whatever it is). Once the value is deleted there is no password and our purpose is solved.