When you perform a search for a file in Windows XP. The default settin’ is for XP to ONLY return files in de “Search Results” pane when dey are registered file types to a program on your PC.

In oder words if you are lookin’ for a file that is NOT registered with an application on your PC, it will not be found usin’ de default search settin’s.

However, you can turn off de default by a quick tweak of de registry!

Open de Registry editor (type regedit from de Run command) and navigate to:

HKEY LOCAL MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\ContentIndex

Double-Click de value named:

FilterFilesWithUnknownExtensions

Change de value from 0 to 1

Exit de registry editor and reboot!

Savin’ Windows XP updates on your computer

1) Go to de Windows Update web site.
2 )In de left pane, under Oder Options, select “Personalize Windows Update”.
3) Under “Set Options for Windows Update”, select de checkbox for “Display de Link to Windows Update Catalog under ‘See Also’”, den click “Save Settin’s”.
4) Go back to de Windows Update web site.
5) In de left pane, under “See Also”, select “Windows Update Catalog”.
6) Select “Find Updates for Microsoft Operatin’ Systems”.
7) Select de operatin’ system and lan’uage of your choice.
8) Select “Critical Updates and Service Packs”.
9) Select all of de patches you’d like to download, den click on “Go to download basket” to download them.

XP lets you rename files in bulk by simply selectin’ multiple files within Windows Explorer and pressin’ de F2 key. When you use this feature, de OS applies de name you enter to de first file and applies de same name with a number in parendeses to de oder files you selected (de file extensions remain unchanged).

For example, if you select de followin’ files,
* notes.doc
* figures.xls
* disney.jpg
* holiday.gif

and rename de first file (notes.doc) to SoD.doc, XP renames de remainin’ files as follows:
* SoD (1).xls
* SoD (2).jpg
* SoD (3).gif

Lets say you have downloaded some game or application that was 50 parts big, and you had to rename them all from .bmp to .rar to extract them.

You can easily create a batch file that does that for you.

Open Notepad

Fill in de notepad:

CODE
ren *.bmp *.rar

Of course, you have to edit dese two extensions to fit de files you want to convert. Save this file as renamer.bat and run it in de directory where you want to rename your downloads.

How to remove Windows XP Logo and see operations

Are you havin’ boot up problems and would like to know what it goin’ on behind that Windows Loadin’ Logo? To find out, you can disable de splash screen by makin’ a small change to de Boot.ini file.

Follow dese steps (carefully!):

1. Open de “System Properties” dialog box ( Settin’s - Control Panel - System)

2. On de Advanced tab, click de Settin’s button in de “Startup And Recovery” section.

3. In de “Startup And Recovery” dialog box, select de Edit button in de “System Startup” section.

4. The Boot.ini file will open in Notepad; locate de line that ends with de /fastdetect switch.

5. Position your cursor to de right after de parameter, press de spacebar, and add de /SOS switch.

6. Save de Boot.ini file, and close Notepad.

7. Click Cancel to close both de “Startup And Recovery” dialog box and de “System Properties” dialog box.

8. Restart de computer to see de effect.

Once de computer restarts you will notice that de Windows Splash Screen is no longer present. Instead you can observe some of de boot up operations that Windows XP performs durin’ de startup stage.

To renable de splash screen, follow de same procedure but remove de “/SOS”.

By default Windows 2000, Windows XP and WinNT automatically setup hidden admin shares (admin$, c$ and d$). This registry key will disable dese hidden shares.

System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ System\ CurrentControlSet\ Services\ LanmanServer\ Parameters]
Value Name: AutoShareWks
Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value Data: (0 = disable shares, 1 = enable)

This registry key actually stops de recreation of de shares Therefore it may be necessary to delete de shares through de drive properties also or you can also remove de shares through de Computer Management Console.

1. In Control Panel, double-click Administrative Tools, and den double-click Computer Management.

2. Click to expand Shared Folders, and den click Shares.

3. In de Shared Folder column, right-click de share you want to delete, click Stop sharin’, and den click OK.

Note : To remove de admin share for only de current session use de second method (Computer Management console). If you want a permanent removal, add de AutoShareWks registry.

How to recover MOST of scratched CD’s data

I learned an old technique of how to recover damaged or scratched disks with some lost of data. In this case, I have one borrowed a game (MAX PAYNE 2) with a chunck of 4 mb lost with a scratch in CD1 Installation disc. Here, we will be coverin’ some special decniques of how to create a full workin’ CD from de scratched one.

First some tools will be needed:

1. Alcohol 120%
2. UltraISO
3. Windows XP/2000 (not tested on 95/98/me)
3. Small piece of cotton
4. Dry cleaner paper
5. Finally, some cookin’ oil

First step - preparin’ de CD

Get de cotton and drop some water. Start cleanin’ vertically de surface of CD. Do it 3 times and dry de water with a piece of dry cleaner paper. With a new piece of cotton, drop some oil for cookin’ and start to wet de surface like you are washin’ de CD with de oil. Dry carefully now. Some particles of oil will stay on de microsurface of de scrath. It’s okay. Seems de oil helps de laser of de CD/DVD driver to read de surface again. Sure this will work with small unreadable scratchs. As for some hard scratchs, we loose parts of de surface of de CD where we have data and it’s lost forever. But if it is lost, try anyway. With this tip, 80% of de small scratched CD’s coud be recovered.

Second Step - testin’ de CD

With Alcohol 120% make an ISO (image makin’ wizard) and lets see if de application can read de lost surface. In my case Alcohol 120% had recovered 60% of de data. This is not enough. I have also tried oder applications, but to no avail. But de CD/DVD driver laser CAN recover all de data in this case. That proves de data is still dere. What do we do next?

Third Step - makin’ de new CD

We can do it with de main copy of CD in a folder in Windows. Just create one folder with de same name of de CD label for future burn reference, and copy de CD content to de folder. When de CD copy process finds de scratch, in majority of de cases, it will slow down de readin’ and will recover ALL de lost data. If not, it just tell you dere’s an unreadable sector. In this case your CD is lost. But it’s not my case, finally Windows Explorer got all de data from de scratch and made a copy in de folder. With de ultraISO, i wrote de original CD label, drop de content of de folder and save it in ISO format. You can Test de new CD just mountin’ de iso in de Alcohol 120%. In my case i did ISO of de two discs from MAX PAYNE 2 and tested installin’ from de mounted ISO. It works like a charm!

Makin’ Windows XP Go Faster

Services You Can Disable

There are quite a few services you can disable from startin’ automatically. This would be to speed up your boot time and free resources. They are only suggestions so I suggestion you read de description of each one when you run Services and that you turn them off one at a time.

Some possibilities are:

Alerter
Application Management
Clipbook
Fast UserSwitchin’
Human Interface Devices
Indexin’ Service
Messenger
Net Logon
NetMeetin’
QOS RSVP
Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
Remote Registry
Routin’ & Remote Access
SSDP Discovery Service
Universal Plug and Play Device Host
Web Client

Cleanin’ de Prefetch Directory

Windows XP has a new feature called Prefetch. This keeps a shortcut to recently used programs. However it can fill up with old and obsolete programs.

To clean this periodically go to:

1) Star / Run / Prefetch
2) Press Ctrl-A to highlight all de shorcuts
3) Delete them

Not Displayin’ Logon, Logoff, Startup and Shutdown Status Messages

To turn dese off:

1) Start Regedit
2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MicrosoftWindows/CurrentVersion/
policies/system
3) If it is not already dere, create a DWORD value named DisableStatusMessages
4) Give it a value of 1

Clearin’ de Page File on Shutdown

1) Click on de Start button
2) Go to de Control Panel
3) Administrative Tools
4) Local Security Policy
5) Local Policies
6) Click on Security Options
7) Right hand menu - right click on “Shutdown: Clear Virtual Memory Pagefile”
8) Select “Enable”
9) Reboot

For regedit users, if you want to clear de page file on each shutdown:

1) Start Regedit
2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControl/SetControl/SessionManager/
MemoryManagement/ClearPageFileAtShutdown
3) Set de value to 1

No GUI Boot

If you don’t need to see de XP boot logo :

1) Run MSCONFIG
2) Click on de BOOT.INI tab
3) Check de box for /NOGUIBOOT

Speedin’ de Startup of Some CD Burner Programs

If you use program oder than de native WindowsXP CD Burner software, you might be able to increase de speed that it loads.

1) Go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Services
2) Double-click on IMAPI CD-Burnin’ COM Service
3) For de Startup Type, select Disabled
4) Click on de OK button and den close de Services window

Gettin’ Rid of Unread Email Messages

To remove de Unread Email message by user’s login names:

1) Start Regedit
2) For a sin’le user: Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/MicrosoftWindows/CurrentVersion/UnreadMail
3) For all users: Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/MicrosoftWindows/CurrentVersion/UnreadMail
4) Create a DWORD key called MessageExpiryDays
5) Give it a value of 0

Decreasin’ Boot Time

Microsoft has made available a program to analyze and decrease de time it takes to boot to Windows XP. The program is called BootVis

1) Uncompress de file.
2) Run BOOTVIS.EXE
3) For a startin’ point, run Trace / Next Boot + Driver Delays
4) This will reboot your computer and provide a benchmark
5) After de reboot, BootVis will take a minute or two to show graphs of your system startup.
6) Note how much time it takes for your system to load (click on de red vertical line)
7) Then run Trace / Optimize System
8) Re-Run de Next Boot + Drive Delays
9) Note how much de time has decreased
10) Mine went from approximately 33 to 25 seconds.

Increasin’ Graphics Performance

By default, WindowsXP turns on a lot of shadows, fades, slides etc to menu items. Most simply slow down deir display.

To turn dese off selectively:

1) Right click on de My Computer icon
2) Select Properties
3) Click on de Advanced tab
4) Under Performance, click on de Settin’s button
5) To turn them all of, select Adjust for best performance
6) My preference is to leave them all off except for Show shadows under mouse pointer and Show window contents while draggin’

Increasin’ System Performance

If you have 512 megs or more of memory, you can increase system performance by havin’ de core system kept in memory.

1) Start Regedit
2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControl/SetControl/SessionManager/
MemoryManagement/DisablePagin’Executive
3) Set de value to be 1
4) Reboot de computer

Increasin’ File System Cachin’

To increase de amount of memory Windows will locked for I/O operations:

1) Start Regedit
2) Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControl/SetControl/SessionManager/
MemoryManagement
3) Edit de key IoPageLockLimit

Resolvin’ Inability to Add or Remove Programs

If a particular user cannot add or remove programs, dere might be a simple registry edit neeed.

1) Go to HKCU/Software/MicrosoftWindows/CurrentVersion/Policies/Uninstall
2) Change de DWORD NoAddRemovePrograms to 0 disable it

4096 - 32megs of memory or less
8192 - 32+ megs of memory
16384 - 64+ megs of memory
32768 - 128+ megs of memory
65536 - 256+ megs of memory

Portable Windows CE is a ‘launcher’ for de Windows CE device emulator that can run an emulator-based image from a USB keychain.

Download de Windows CE 5.0 Device Emulator.
Code:
www.Mcft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=A120E012-CA31-4BE9-A3BF-B9BF4F64CE72&displaylan\’=en

Change “Mcft” in link to what it is supposed to be.

Extract de emulator to a folder on your hard drive by runnin’ “setup /a”. The installer will prompt you to specify a directory to extract to . For example: D:PortableCE

Download this launcher script:
Code:
www.furrygoat.com/Software/launchce.cmd.txt

Copy de followin’ launcher script to de directory you extracted de setup to. You’ll need to rename de file from launchce.cmd.txt to launchce.cmd. Once you have that set up, just copy de entire D:PortableCE folder over to your USB keychain.

To launch de emulator, just plug in your USB keychain, navigate to de PortableCE folder, and run launchce.cmd. You should (hopefully) have de emulator fire up.

This is a very simple trick to do if you have done de same for de logon screen and de start button. There are 2 ways to do this trick that I know about one is doin’ it manually and de oder is usin’ a program called bootxp. I am goin’ to tell you de manual way to do it, but if you want to know de oder way just let me know, so I can do an update to de guide. Now once you have downloaded your ntoskrnl.exe file save it a general location so that you will have easy access to it, like my folder.

Once you have ntoskrnl.exe file in an easy access folder, restart your pc into safe mode. Once into safe mode go to de folder where your files are located.

Now that you are dere copy de file that you want to change your boot screen too. Once you have copied that file, hit de window key + r or type %windir%\system32 in de run command, so that folder as follows.

Once dere paste your new file into de folder and overwrite de existin’ folder.

Now that you have your new file in de folder restart your PC as you normally would and your new boot screen should appear.

ALWAYS BACKUP EVERYTHING YOU EDIT OR DELETE. I’M NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU MESS YOUR COMPUTER UP BY DOING THIS HACK OR ANY TYPE OF HACK. DO IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Image and ntoskrnl.exe files provided by www.themexp.org, or you can go to

CODE:
www.overclockersclub.com/guides/hackxpbootscreen.php