duminică, 19 iunie 2011

Some Tips And Tricks For Your Windows XP

STOP NOISE IN COPYING AUDIO CD
When using 3rd party burning software (eg, Nero Burning Rom) to copy audio CD,some noise may be heard at the end of each track. To prevent this,try the following method:
1. Enter System Properties\device manager
2. Select IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers
3. Double click on thee CD writer IDE channel
4. Select advance setting
5. Change the transfer mode to 'PIO Only'
6. Restart Computer

DISABLING THE 'UNSIGNED DRIVER' DIALOGS
This option wll disable the screen wich keeps popping up when you try to install 'digitally unsigned drivers'. Normally you can choose to continue the install anyways, but I have had situations where you cannot continue the install.. very annoying.. This is how to fix it:
Click Start - Run
then type: gpedit.msc
then hit enter.
Browse the folder tree to the following location:
User Configuration - Administrative Templates - System
now right-click Code signing for Device drivers and select Properties.
On the Settings tab, either select
- enable, and then select ignore from the appearing listbox..
- or click the disable option. Click apply and Ok and your set!
Alternatively especially for XP Home users:
Open "System" properties (Windows key + pause or Right click 'My Computer' - properties or Control Panel - System).On the Hardware tab click the "Driver Signing" button. In the dialogue that comes up choose "Ignore" to install the new driver anyway.

DMA MODE ON IDE DEVICES VIEWS
Just like Windows 2000, Windows XP still fails to set the DMA mode correctly for the IDE device designated as the slaves on the primary IDE and secondary IDE channels. Most CD-ROMS are capable of supporting DMA mode, but the default in XP is still PIO. Setting it to DMA won't make your CD-ROM faster, but it will consume less CPU cycles. Here's how:
1. Open the Device Manager. One way to do that is to right click on "My Computer", select the Hardware tab, and Select Device Manager.
2. Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers" and double-click on "Primary IDE Channel"
3. Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, check the "Device 1" setting. More than likely, your current transfer mode is set to PIO.
4. Set it to "DMA if available".
Repeat the step for the "Secondary IDE Channel" if you have devices attached to it. Reboot.

RESTORING MEDIA PLAYER
To restore Windows Media Player insert the the XP CD into the CD drive (if it autostarts click exit). Open a command window and type the following :
rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection InstallWMP7 132 c:\windows\inf\wmp.inf

RESTORING ACCESS TO CD ROM'S
If you removed CD Burning software, or for some other mystical reason, can not longer access your CD ROM's, in most cases following registry keys needs to be deleted: Locate and delete the UpperFilters and LowerFilters values under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

DELETING THE INDEX.DAT
Del "C:\Documents and Settings\aeon\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat"

CONTROL PANEL ON THE DESKTOP.
On The Desktop, Right Click Your Mouse Then Choose "New | Folder". Name The Folder As "ControlPanel. {21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Without The "Quote Things. And Now You Can Access The Control Panel More Faster Then Before.

CHANGING INTERNET EXPLORER ICON NAME.
Open Registry Editor Then Go To : "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\CLSID". You Can See A Few Key Below It.

Now Go To This Key {871C5380-42A0-1069-A2EA-08002B30309D}, Double Click At The Default Value On The Right, Enter Whatever Name You Like.

REMOVING USERNAME IN THE STARTMENU
Open Registry Editor Then Go To : "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer".
On The Right, Make A New Entry With Right Click On Your Mouse Then Choose "New | DWORD Value" Change The Entry's Name Into "NoUserNameInStartMenu", Double Click In The New Entry And Fill The "Value Data" With "1". Press OK, Exit From The Registry Editor. Restart Your Computer.

INTERNET EXPLORER LIGHTING-FAST STARTUP.
Isn't it annoying when you want to go to a new website, or any other site but your homepage, and you have to wait for your 'home' to load? This tweak tells Internet Explorer to simply 'run', without loading any webpages. (If you use a 'blank' page, that is still a page, and slows access. Notice the 'about:blank' in the address bar. The blank html page must still be loaded..). To load IE with 'nothing' [nothing is different than blank]:
1. Right-click on any shortcut you have to IE
[You should create a shortcut out of your desktop IE icon, and delete the original icon]
2. Click Properties
3. Add ' -nohome' [with a space before the dash] after the endquotes in the Target field.
4. Click OK
Fire up IE from your modified shortcut, and be amazed by how fast you are able to use IE!

INTERNET EXPLORER SPEED UP.
Edit your link to start Internet Explorer to have -nohome after it. For Example: "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE" -nohome
This will load internet explorer very fast because it does not load a webpage while it is loading. If you want to go to your homepage after it is loaded, just click on the home button.

SPEED UP BROWSING WITH DNS CATCH.
when you connect to a web site your computer sends information back and forth, this is obvious. Some of this information deals with resolving the site name to an IP address, the stuff that tcp/ip really deals with, not words. This is DNS information and is used so that you will not need to ask for the site location each and every time you visit the site. Although WinXP and win2000 has a pretty efficient DNS cache, you can increase its overall performance by increasing its size. You can do this with the registry entries below:
************begin copy and paste***********
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Dnscache\Parameters]
"CacheHashTableBucketSize"=dword:00000001
"CacheHashTableSize"=dword:00000180
"MaxCacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000fa00
"MaxSOACacheEntryTtlLimit"=dword:0000012d
************end copy and paste***********
make a new text file and rename it to dnscache.reg. Then copy and paste the above into it and save it. Then merge it into the registry.

START IEXPLORER WITH EMPTY BLUE SCREEN.
Set your default page to about:mozilla and IE will show a nice blue screen upon startup.

SPEED UP DETAILED VIEW IN WINDOWS EXPLORER.
If you like to view your files in Windows Explorer using the "Details" view here is a tweak to speed up the listing of file attributes: Viewing files in Windows Explorer using the "Details" mode shows various attributes associated with each file shown. Some of these must be retrieved from the individual files when you click on the directory for viewing. For a directory with numerous and relatively large files (such as a folder in which one stores media, eg: *.mp3's, *.avi's etc.)

Windows Explorer lags as it reads through each one. Here's how to disable viewing of unwanted attributes and speed up file browsing:
1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Navigate to the folder which you wish to optimize.
3. In "Details" mode right click the bar at the top which displays the names of the attribute columns.
4. Uncheck any that are unwanted/unneeded.
Explorer will apply your preferences immediately, and longs lists of unnecessary attributes will not be displayed. Likewise, one may choose to display any information which is regarded as needed, getting more out of Explorer.

WEB PAGES SLOWS DOWN, FIX.
The tweak is simple. Beside the QoS and others around the Internet for the new XP OS, I found out that native drivers sometimes slow you down (cable and xDSL users). So if you have applied all tweaks and you are still having slow downs try reinstalling your NICs drivers. The difference is noticeable. My web pages now load almost instantly where they used to take even a minute!

FIX IE 6 SLOWDOWNS AND HANGS.
1. Open a command prompt window on the desktop (Start/Run/command).
2. Exit IE and Windows Explorer (iexplore.exe and explorer.exe, respectively, in Task Manager, i.e - Ctrl-Alt-Del/Task Manager/Processes/End Process for each).
3. Use the following command exactly from your command prompt window to delete the corrupt file:
C:\>del "%systemdrive%\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local
Settings\Temporary Internet Files\Content.IE5\index.dat"
4. Restart Windows Explorer with Task Manager (Ctrl-Alt-Del/Task Manager/Applications/New Task/Browse/C:\Windows\explorer.exe[or your path]) or Shutdown/Restart the computer from Task Manager.

SPEED UP WEB BROWSING.
Iv'e personally found a dramatic increase in web browsing after clearing the Windows XP DNS cache. To clear it type the following in a command prompt: ipconfig /flushdns.

ALLOW MORE THAN 2 SIMULTANEOUS DOWNLOADS ON IEXPLORER 6.
This is to increase the the number of max downloads to 10.
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the following key in the registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value , and then add the following registry values:
"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=Dword:0000000a
"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=Dword:0000000a
4. Quit Registry Editor.

IPV6 INSTALLATION FOR WINDOWS XP.
This protocol is distined to replace the Internet Protocal Version 4 used by Internet Explorer it uses hexadecimal ip addresses instead of decimal example (decimal ip 62.98.231.67) (hexadecimal IP 2001:6b8:0:400::70c)
To install To install the IPv6 Protocol for Windows XP:
Log on to the computer running Windows XP with a user account that has local administrator privileges. Open a command prompt. From the Windows XP desktop, click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. At the command prompt, type: ipv6 install
For more information on IPv6, visit the site below:
CODE
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/administration/ipv6/default.asp


ANOTHER WAY TO FIX IEXPLORER 6 SLOW PAGES LOADED.
Here's an easier way to get to index.dat file as addresse in another tweak submitted here.
1. click on Internet Explorer
2. go to to your root dir (usually C:)
3. open Documents and Settings folder
4. open "your username folder"
5. open UserData
6. **close IE if you have it open**
rename index.dat to index.old
logoff and log back on (don't need to restart) open up IE and go to a web page or site that always seemed to load slowly. It should load a lot more quickly now. NOTE. Always rename or backup .dat or other system files before deleting.

EASY WAY TO ADD THE ADMINISTRATOR USER TO THE WELCOME SCREEN.
Start the Registry Editor Go to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ CurrentVersion \ Winlogon \ SpecialAccounts \ UserList \
Right-click an empty space in the right pane and select New > DWORD Value Name the new value Administrator. Double-click this new value, and enter 1 as it's Value data. Close the registry editor and restart.

DRIVE ICONS.
To set the icon of any drive (hard disk, cd rom or anything else) with a letter (C:\ etc.), run REGEDIT (Start -> Run -> regedit)
Navigate to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
If one doesn't already exist, create a new KEY called "DriveIcons". Under this key, create a new key with the letter of your drive. I.e. C for your C:\ drive.
To change the icon for that drive, create a key inside that one called DefaultIcon and set the path of (Default) to the location of your icon
eg C\DefaultIcon\ then (Default) = D:\Documents\C Drive Icon.ico
To change the name of that drive, create a key in the drive letter one (eg C\) called DefaultLabel and set the (Default) to what you want the drive to be called. This is useful if you want to assign a long name to the floppy drive.

CHANGING OEM REGISTRATIONS.
Have you used someone's new Hewlet Packard with their OEM version of Windows XP? You've seen that HP has their own icon in the Start Menu, underneath Run, that goes to their Help Site. Now, you can have your icon that does anything you want (website, program, etc) and says anything you want. Basically, you are "branding" Windows XP (Home or Pro), great for if you are a computer builder and sell them, or you just want to make Windows XP your own. It involves Regedit.
1. Start up Notepad and creat a new registry file (*.reg) and copy and paste the following into it:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]
@="YOUR COMPANY NAME"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\DefaultIcon]
@="YOUR ICON HERE"
00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,68,00,70,00,6c,00,69,00,\
6e,00,6b,00,2e,00,69,00,63,00,6f,00,00,00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\InProcServer32]
@=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,74,00,25,\
00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,00,68,00,\
64,00,6f,00,63,00,76,00,77,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance]
"CLSID"="{3f454f0e-42ae-4d7c-8ea3-328250d6e272}"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\Instance\InitPropertyBag]
"CLSID"="{13709620-C279-11CE-A49E-444553540000}"
"method"="ShellExecute"
"Command"="YOUR TITLE HERE"
"Param1"="YOUR FUNCTION HERE"
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers]
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}]
@=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\shellex\MayChangeDefaultMenu]
@=""
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{2559a1f6-21d7-11d4-bdaf-00c04f60b9f0}\ShellFolder]
"Attributes"=dword:00000000
2. Edit where it says YOUR ICON HERE to a path to an icon (ex. c:\\icon.ico), it must be 24x24 pixels and in *.ico format. Use double back slash for path names.
3. Edit both places where it says YOUR TITLE HERE to what you want it to say in the Start Menu (ex. Elranzer Homepage).
4. Edit where it says YOUR FUNCTION here to what you want it to do when you click it, it can be anything... your website, a local HTML document, a program, a Windows funtion, whatever your imagination can provide (ex. http://www.shareordie.com).
5. Save this file as brand.reg, double-click it to enterin your information, and refresh Explorer (log off/on) to see it in the Start Menu!! This works in both Home and Professional (and probably 64-Bit Professional) Editions!

ORIGINAL WALLPAPERS.
This is more of a fun tweak than it is useful. Go to run, type regedit press ok. when that comes up go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Control Panel>Desktop
Now find the orginalwallpaper, right click and select modify.In the text box type the path to the file you want to be your orginal desktop wallpaper.

DELETING My eBooks AND SPECIALS FOLDER IN MY DOCUMENTS.
Click Start, then Run and type: regsvr32 /u mydocs.dll
then delete them.

DISABLE WINDOWS PICTURE AND FAX VIEWER.
By default, Windows XP opens all picture files (gif,jpg,...) with the included Windows Picture and Fax Viewer no matter what other picture viewers you have installed. To disable the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, unregister shimgvw.dll. This can be done from command prompt: regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll

REMOVE PAST ITEMS ICONS IN TASKBAR.
Some times When you check your TasKbar properties or when you hide or unhide icons you can see old icons from Uninstalled or old programs you dont have anymore. This Tweak will help you how to get rid of this problem Thanks to leobull of Xperience.or How To clear the Past Items or Icons list in the TaskBar, perform the following steps:
1.Open Regedit Navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\TrayNotify
2.Delete the IconStreams and PastIconsStream values
3.Open Task Manager, click the Processes tab, click Explorer.exe , and then click End Process .
4.In Task Manager, click File , click New Task , type explorer , and then click OK .

LOCKING COMPUTERS.
To lock a computer in XP, as you probably know, you press "L" while holding down "Windows Logo" key on your keyboard. However, if you would like to lock a computer remotely, for example via "Remote Administrator", you don't have this ability. What you can do instead, is to create a shortcut on remote computer's desktop where Target %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation Start In %windir%

ADMINISTRATOR IN WELCOME SCREEN.
When you install Windows XP an Administrator Account is created (you are asked to supply an administrator password), but the "Welcome Screen" does not give you the option to log on as Administrator unless you boot up in Safe Mode.
First you must ensure that the Administrator Account is enabled:
1 open Control Panel
2 open Administrative Tools
3 open Local Security Policy
4 expand Local Policies
5 click on Security Options
6 ensure that Accounts: Administrator account status is enabled Then follow the instructions from the "Win2000 Logon Screen Tweak" ie.
1 open Control Panel
2 open User Accounts
3 click Change the way users log on or log off
4 untick Use the Welcome Screen
5 click Apply Options
You will now be able to log on to Windows XP as Administrator in Normal Mode.

BUGFIXES.
This is a strange bug in Windows XP Pro but it can and does happen to everyone. When you open the My Computer screen and your Documents folder is missing but all the other users folders are there try this tweak.
STEP 1:
START > RUN > REGEDIT > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Microsoft / Windows / Current Version / Explorer / DocFolderPaths
Once you click the DocFolderPaths folder you should see all the user's folders.
STEP 2:
Add a new string value
Value Name: your user name
Value Data: the path to your docs folder ( ex. C:\Documents and Settings\your docs folder )
Exit Registry editor and open my computer, your docs folder should now be visable.

MOUSE POINTERS.
It seems that even without pointer precision disabled, the mouse under XP is still influenced by an acceleration curve. This is especially noticeable in games. To

completely remove mouse acceleration from XP, you will need to go into the registry and adjust the SmoothmouseXYCurve values. Here is how its done.
1. Click Start button
2. Select Run
3. Type 'regedit' in the open textbox
4. Open the tree 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER', select control panel, then select mouse
5. Right clicking, modify the SmoothMouseXCurve and SmoothMouseYCurve hexidecimal values to the following:
SmoothMouseXCurve:
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,a0,00,00,00,00,00,00
00,40,01,00,00,00,00,00
00,80,02,00,00,00,00,00
00,00,05,00,00,00,00,00
SmoothMouseYCurve:
00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00
66,a6,02,00,00,00,00,00
cd,4c,05,00,00,00,00,00
a0,99,0a,00,00,00,00,00
38,33,15,00,00,00,00,00
If done correctly, you will notice you are holding a markedly more responsive mouse.

HIDDEN WINDOWS XP ICONS.
Windows XP Pro and Home contains icons for folders and files that cannot normally be seen, you can select to view hidden files from the folder options menu, but there are still some that remain hidden.
You can set windows to view these files as normal hidden files, so that when you use the view hidden files and folders toggle from the folder options menu that these will be turned on/off along with the normal hidden files.
These files are usually system files and should not be altered/deleted unless you really know what you are doing, if you don't yet still wish to change them I might suggest that you create back-ups of your system first.
I will personally accept no responsibility for any damage caused by using this tweak. To view the hidden files you need to open up regedit, if you are not sure how to do this, select run from the start menu and type in 'regedit' without the apostrophe's. In the regedit window, expand out the groups by clicking on the '+' next to the name in the left hand column of regedit, and navigate to the below address.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \SOFTWARE \MICROSOFT \WINDOWS \CURRENTVERSION \EXPLORER \ADVANCED
when you have clicked the advanced folder on the left pane, look down the list at the titles in the right hand pane, one of those titles is 'ShowSuperHidden'
double click the title and in the window that appears set the value to equal 1 to show the super hidden files and 0 to hide them.

XP HOME ADVANCED FILE PERMISSIONS.
This is actually an addition to my previous post entitled "Get XP Pro file security with XP Home". In the aforementioned post I outlined how to access
*Advance file Permissions* on NTFS file systems for XP Home simply by booting into *Safe Mode*, rt-clicking any file or folder, and navigating to the *Security tab*. This gives the user the ability to allow or deny read, write, execute, read & write, display contents, full-control, iheritance, and take ownership permissions, with many more options available to apply to different users and groups stored on the computer. Well, you don't have to do this in *Safe Mode* (XP Home). Although it is a little less intuitive, you can simply go to your command prompt - Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt. Now type "cacls" in the window (without the quotes). This gives you the ability to add, remove or modify file permissions on files and folders through the command prompt. Type "cacls /?" for help on different options and variables. You do not need to be in safe mode to use this so it makes it a little quicker than using the safe mode security tab GUI. Remember - this only applies to NTFS. Here also is a very useful link to find a lot of extras and tweaks straight from the horse's mouth - the Microsoft Resource Center. You will find a lot of very useful web-based extra's here, most of them left unknowing to the general public - such as, "Online Crash Analysis" - a site that looks like Windows Update but you can upload your crash "dump logs" (when you get those system or application crash error reports). Microsoft will then analyze the log file and tell you some more info about WHY the system crashed (ie. faulty hardware/software/conflicts, etc).

FLASHGET :BYPASSING 8 MAX SIMULTANEOUS JOBS.
Users of Flash get will notice that the maximum number of file splits is 8. This number can be increased by the tweak below:
1. Run regedit.
2. Navigate to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\JetCar\JetCar\General\]
3. Right Click -> Add String Value.
4. Name as MaxSimJobs -> Set the value as what ever number you want.
After a restart you should be able to download with more file splits.

OUTLOOK EXPRESS WINDOWS TITLE TWEAKS.
Change the window title of Outlook Express to anything you want!
In regedt32 and navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Identities\{EE383506-901D-43C6-8E40-9A61901DF7CC}\Software\Microsoft\Outlook Express\5.0. Add a new string key called WindowTitle and make its value the desired window title. Then close the registry editor, and restart Outlook Express (if it's running.) Your new title now shows up in the title bar!

WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER 9.
When installing WMP 9 it leaves a watersign on your desktop. You can easily remove this with: regedit:
HKey_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\microsoft\system certificates\CA\certificates\FEE449EE0E3965A5246F00E87FDE2A065FD89D4
HKey_Local_Machine\software\microsoft\system certificates\ROOT\certificates\2BD63D28D7BCD0E251195AEB519243C13142EBC3
Remove both lines and restart computer.

CHANGING THE WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER TITLEBAR.
This is a per-user tweak. Open RegEdit.
Browse to the following key:
HKEY_USERS\S-1-5-21-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxx-xxxx\Software\Policies\Microsoft\WindowsMediaPlayer
(the x's will vary from computer to computer , it's the key without the "_Classes" at the end) Create the following String, "TitleBar" , the value of this will now become the TitleBar of Windows Media Player.

AUTO DELETE TEMPORARY FOLDER.
First go into gpedit.msc
Next select -> Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Terminal Services/Temporary Folder
Then right click "Do Not Delete Temp Folder Upon Exit"
Go to properties and hit disable. Now next time Windows puts a temp file in that folder it will automatically delete it when its done! Note from Forum Admin: Remember, GPEDIT (Group Policy Editor) is only available in XP Pro.

CLEANUP STARTUP ITEMS IN MSCONFIG.
Do you ever uninstall programs and they are still listed under startup items in msconfig? Personally, I found myself with 30 such items from old installs. Microsoft leaves you no way to clean up this list, but have no fear, I have figured it out for you.
1. Open MSconfig and click on the startup items tab
2. Open Regedit and naviate to HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Sharedtools/MSconfig/startupreg
3. Compare the list of registry keys under startup reg with their counterparts in msconfig.
4. Delete the keys which are no longer valid.
5. Voila! You've cleaned up msconfig.

REMOVING SERVICES DEPENDENCIES.
This will allow you to disable a service or uninstall it from your system without effecting another service that depends on it. Here's how you do it
1. After you have set your services the way you want them and you have disabled/uninstalled something that another services depends on, run "regedit"
2. Under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\find the service that will not function, do to another service being disabled/uninstall (found in ControlSet001\Services, ControlSet002\Services, and CurrentControlSet\Services)
3. Once you have found the service right-click on the string value, "DependOnService,"and modify
4. You should now see a list of services that it is dependent on. Simply delete the service that you have disabled/uninstalled
5. Restart your computer and your ready to go Disclaimer REMEMBER TO BACKUP YOU REGISTRY FIRST I'm not totaly sure if this will have any negative effects on your system. I used this method after uninstalling "Netbios over Tcpip" from my system completely, so that my Dhcp service would function and I have had NO negative effects on my system.

ANOTHER WAY TO DELETE HIDDEN DEVICES.
You can view and delete or modify hidden devices by:
1. Openning Device Manager. (I usually right-click on My Computer, select Properties, select the Hardware tab, then select Device Manager.)
2. Select View and check "Show hidden devices"
3. Hidden devices will appear below with the others and can be modified.

HOW TO GET "My Briefcase" IN WINDOWS XP.
go to C:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache. look for a file named "syncapp".
double click it. an icon should appear on your desktop that says "My Briefcase". double click it. it will come up with this window that tells you how to use it.

TURN NUMLOCK ON AT LOGON.
NumLock does not toggle on by default (system-wide), even if you have it set in your PC's BIOS, because of XP's multi-user functionality. Guess Microsoft doesn't know everyone actually turns it on, which should be reason enough for what acts as "default"...
Anyway, you can hack the Windows Registry to change this behavior, or run a script at logon to turn NumLock on.
1. To enable NumLock through the Registry:
* Open Windows' Registry Editor (START > RUN, type "REGEDIT").
*. Navigate to HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard.
*. Change the value for InitialKeyboardIndicators from 0 to 2.
2. To enable NumLock using a script, see this MS Knowledgebase article for complete instructions:
CODE
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q262625

Option 1 is the quicker method, but if you have more than one user on your system and one or more don't want NumLock on (stranger things have been known of), then option 2 is the way to go since it allows you to only attach the script to specific users.

FREE DISK SPACE BY DELETING RESTORE POINTS.
Start button-all programs-accessories-system tools-cleanup-more options. You will have the option of deleting your restore points.When your done creat one
restore point as a back up.

HOW TO REAL GET RID OF UNNECESSARY SOFTWARE
to uninstall things like msn messenger and other hidden installs thru add remove programs, do this: find sysoc.inf (you might have to enable "show hidden files" and "show hidden/protected system folders" in explorer) and open it in notepad replace all ",hide" with "," (both with out quotes) which is easiest to do with the replace all command under edit then in add/remove programs under add/remove windows compnents and whole new list of things to uninstall and add are now listed (such as internet explorer)

HAVING PROGRAMS RUN WHEN WINDOWS LOADS SLOWS DOWN YOUR STARTUP.
There are two ways do disable programs that may be in your startup (like icq, messanger,) The easiest is to do the following:
1. start --> run --> msconfig
2. Click on the "startup" tab (furthest right)\
3. Unclick any items you don't want to load when windows starts.
The second is by deleting registry entrys, this can be done the following way:
1. Start --> run --> regedit
2. Navigate to : HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
3. Delete any entry's that you don't want to load up

TURN OFF INDEXING TO SPEED UP XP.
Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turnning this feature off:
1. Control Panel
2. Administrative Tools
3. Services
4. Disable Indexing Services

HALF LIFE AND WINDOWS XP.
1. How to recover from incompatible drivers
Before you install new drivers set a system restore point. Start>All programs>Accessories>system tools>system restore
After your new drivers don't work reset your computer. Press F8 repeatedly as soon as the BIOS screen disappears, and before the Windows XP screen appears. Select safe mode. Use system restore again to undo your mess.
2. Video Drivers
The NVidia drivers that come with XP do not allow you to run Half Life in OpenGL. Update to the newest drivers.
Despite the fact that they are not official drivers, 22.50 was the only set which worked
3. Sound Drivers
Use windows update to update Creative drivers.
4. Fixing screen flicker
Windows XP defaults to 60Hz for games. A fix is available here:
CODE
http://www.fileplanet.com/dl/dl.asp?/planetquake/ztn/nvreffix-setup.exe

Select "set: ev ery resolution to monitor's maximum supported rate"
5. Fixing lag
If you are having trouble with lag, try disabling the windows XP firewall. Go to control panel>network connections. Select connection, right click, properties, advanced, untick the firewall.
6. Mouse
You can improve your mouse smoothness for games.
Control panel>mouse>hardware>properties>advanced
Change the sample rate to a higher one, eg. 200

REGISTRY METHOD FOR REMOVING STARTUP ITEMS.
I prefer to use MSCONFIG selective startup to troubleshoot. To remove entries for good, open the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RUN
Delete entries of unwanted startup daemons and tray procedures.

DISPLAY MESSAGE ON STARTUP.
Start regedit, if you are unfamiliar with regedit please see our FAQ.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
Modify the key legalnoticecaption with what you want to name the window.
Modify the key legalnoticetext with what you want the window to say. Restart.

REMOVE THE DEFAULT IMAGE VIEWER IN WINDOWS ME/XP.
This tweak works in Windows Me/XP, I have not try it in Windows NT/2000 yet, because i don't have that OS, you can try it if you have.
*This tweak does not work in Windows 95/98
To remove the Windows default Image Viewer, first:
Click Start Menu
Select Run menu
Type "cmd", (for Windows Me, type "command")
Then type "regsvr32 /u shimgvw.dll" to unregister this dll. This will stop it from previewing any picture that it support, e.g. JPEG, Bitmap, GIF....
* Before perform this tweak, make sure that you have the alternative Image Viewer installed in you windows e.g. ACDsee, FireGraphics... because once you do this tweak without that application, you can't open and view your image anymore! So, to undo it, type "regsvr32 shimgvw.dll" in command prompt.

SPEED UP BOOT BY DISABLING UNUSED PORTS.
You may have tried many tweaks like modifying windowsXP 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 windowsXP'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 USBs or COM ports, disabling them will give you an extra perfromance 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.

CLEAR UNWANTED ENTRIES FROM ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS.
Run the Registry Editor (REGEDIT).
Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\ Microsoft\ Windows\ CurrentVersion\ Uninstall Remove any unwanted keys under "Uninstall."

CLICKING * .AVI FILES ON EXPLORER CAUSING 100% CPU USAGE.
Well windows seem to have a REALLY big problem when it comes to reading AVI files. It seems that when you click on an AVI file in explorer, it'll try to read the entire AVI file to determine the width,height, etc. of the AVI file (this is displayed in the Properties window). Now the problem with Windows is that if you have a broken/not fully downloaded AVI file that doesnt contain this info, Windows will scan the entire AVI file trying to figure out all these properties which in the process will probably cause 100% CPU usage and heavy memory usage. To solve this problem all you have to do is the following:
1. Open up regedit
2. Goto HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\SystemFileAssociations\.avi\shellex\PropertyHandler
3. Delete the "Default" value which should be "{87D62D94-71B3-4b9a-9489-5FE6850DC73E}"
Voila! Please not that this will no longer provide you with the windows properties displaying the AVI file information such as width, height, bitrate etc. But its a small price to pay for saving you resources.
NOTE: Please use caution when using regedit. Improper usage may cause windows to behave imcorrectly. Also, I cannot be held resposible. Backup your registry first.

CD ROM STOPS AUTOPLAYING/AUTORUN.
And the AutoPlay Tab has disappeared in My Computer, Devices With Removable Storage, Right Click on CDROM, Properties.
Solution: The service: "Shell Hardware Detection" has been set to Manual or Disabled. Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services. Return this service to "Automatic".

SHUTDOWN XP FASTER 1.
Like previous versions of windows, it takes long time to restart or shutdown windows xp when the "Exit Windows" sound is enabled. to solve this problem you
must disable this useless sound. click start button then go to settings -> control panel -> Sound,Speech and Audio devices -> Sounds and Audio Devices -> Sounds, then under program events and windows menu click on "Exit Windows" sub-menu and highlight it.now from sounds you can select,choose "none" and then click apply and ok. now you can see some improvements when shutting down your system.

SHUTDOWN XP FASTER 2.
Start Regedit.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control.
Click on the "Control" Folder.
Select "WaitToKillServiceTimeout"
Right click on it and select Modify.
Set it a value lower than 2000 (Mine is set to 200).

EASIEST WAY TO DELETE PREFETCH.
1. Open notepad.exe, type del c:\windows\prefetch\*.* /q (without the quotes) & save as "delprefetch.bat" in c:\
2. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "gpedit.msc".
3. Double click "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration" and double click again on "Startup" in the right window.
4. In the new window, click "add", "Browse", locate your "delprefetch.bat" file & click "Open".
5. Click "OK", "Apply" & "OK" once again to exit.
6. Reboot your computer.

SPEED UP MENU DISPLAY.
When using the start menu the you will notice a delay between different tiers of the menu hierarchy. For the fastest computer experience possible I recommend changing this value to zero. This will allow the different tiers to appear instantly. Start Regedit. If you are unfamiliar with regedit please refer to our FAQ on how to get started.
Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Select MenuShowDelay from the list on the right.
Right on it and select Modify.
Change the value to 0.
Reboot your computer.

16 COLOUR ICONS.
If you select 16bit mode for graphics your icons will revert to using 8bit (16 color) icons. Yuck! Change the following registry setting to:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] "Shell Icon BPP"="16" "Shell Icon Size"="32" Setting the BPP to 16bit will yield 65565 colors for icons.

DE-CRYPT ENCRYPTED FILES ON WINDOWS XP.
1. Login as Administrator
2. Go to Start/Run and type in cmd and click OK.
At the prompt type cipher /r:Eagent and press enter
This prompt will then display:
Please type in the password to protect your .PFX file:
Type in your Administrator password
Re-confirm your Administrator password
The prompt will then display
Your .CER file was created successfully.
Your .PFX file was created successfully.
The Eagent.cer and Eagent.pfx files will be saved in the current directory that is shown at the command prompt. Example: The command prompt displays
C:\Documents and Settings\admin> the two files are saved in the admin folder. (For security concerns, you should house the two files in your Administrator folder or on a floppy disk).
3. Go to Start/Run and type in certmgr.msc and click OK. This will launch the Certificates Manager. Navigate to Personal and right click on the folder and select All Tasks/Import. The Certificate Import Wizard will appear. Click Next. Browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\admin folder. In the Open dialog box, change the Files of Type (at the bottom) to personal Information Exchange (*.pfx,*.P12). Select the file Eagent.pfx and click Open. Click Next. Type in your Administrator password (leave the two checkboxes blank) and click Next. Make sure the Radio button is active for the first option (Automatically select the certificate store based on the type of certifcate). Click Next. Click Finish. (You'll receive a message that the import was successful). To confirm the import, close Certificates Manager and re-open it. Expand the Personal folder and you will see a new subfolder labeled Certificates. Expand that folder and you will see the new entry in the right side column. Close Certificate Manager.
4. Go to Start/Run and type in secpol.msc and click OK. This will launch the Local Security Policy. Expand the Public Key Policies folder and then right click on the Encrypted File System subfolder and select Add Data Recovery Agent... The Wizard will then display. Click Next. Click the Browse Folders... button. Browse to the C:\Documents and Settings\admin folder. Select the Eagent.cer file and click Open. (The wizard will display the status User_Unknown. That's ok). Click Next. Click Finish. You will see a new entry in the right side column. Close the Local Security Policy.
You, the Administrator are now configured as the default Recovery Agent for All Encrypted files on the Local Machine.
To Recover Encrypted files: Scenario #1
If you have completed the above steps BEFORE an existing user encrypted his/her files, you can log in to your Administrator account and navigate to the encrypted file(s). Double click on the file(s) to view the contents.
Scenario #2
If you have completed the above steps AFTER an existing user has already encrypted his/her files, you must login to the applicable User's User Account and then immediately logout. Next, login to your Administrator account and navigate to the encrypted file(s). Double click on the file(s) to view the contents.
*Warning Do not Delete or Rename a User's account from which will want to Recover the Encrypted Files. You will not be able to de-crypt the files using the steps outlined above.

DUMP FILES TWEAK & DISABLE DR.WATSON.
"Dump file. A dump file stores data from memory during a system crash and can be helpful when diagnosing problems, but like a swap file, it can also expose a lot of sensitive, unencrypted data. To prevent Windows from creating the file, go to Control Panel | System. Click on the Advanced tab and then the Settings button on the Startup and Recovery pane. Set the drop-down menu under Write debugging information to (none). "Similarly, the debugging program Dr. Watson saves information when applications crash. To disable it, go to:
HKEY_local_machine\software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\ AeDebug and set the Auto string to 0. Then use Windows Explorer to go to Documents and Settings\All Users\Shared Documents\DrWatson. Delete User.dmp and Drwtsn32.log, the insecure logs the program creates." Heed related advice from 'microsoft' regarding 'Disable Dr.Watson' first before the preceding Dr. Watson advice (go Google search.) Back up with System Restore, and go ahead. As cautious as I am, I have gladly applied these tweaks, and followed related microsot advice on Dr. Watson.

Precaution: Backups All Of Your Data Before Tweaking, Not All Of The Tips I've Mentioned Above Were Tested. I Don't Responsible For Any Damages. Happy Experiments

Some Google Tricks, again

A few things you might want to try with Google:

Hand type the following prefixes and note their utility:

link:url Shows other pages with links to that url.

related:url same as "what's related" on serps.

site:domain restricts search results to the given domain.

allinurl: shows only pages with all terms in the url.

inurl: like allinurl, but only for the next query word.

allintitle: shows only results with terms in title.

intitle: similar to allintitle, but only for the next word. "intitle:webmasterworld google" finds only pages with webmasterworld in the title, and google anywhere on the page.

cache:url will show the Google version of the passed url.

info:url will show a page containing links to related searches, backlinks, and pages containing the url. This is the same as typing the url into the search box.

spell: will spell check your query and search for it.

stocks: will lookup the search query in a stock index.

filetype: will restrict searches to that filetype. "-filetype:doc" to remove Microsoft word files.

daterange: is supported in Julian date format only. 2452384 is an example of a Julian date.

maps: If you enter a street address, a link to Yahoo Maps and to MapBlast will be presented.

phone: enter anything that looks like a phone number to have a name and address displayed. Same is true for something that looks like an address (include a name and zip code)

site:www.somesite.net "+www.somesite.+net"
(tells you how many pages of your site are indexed by google)

allintext: searches only within text of pages, but not in the links or page title

allinlinks: searches only within links, not text or title


I hope there is something new in here for you and maybe this infos will be helpfull for ya.

"Single-click to open an item"

When you open Folder Options, the entry Single-click to open an item (point to select) is dimmed. This happens if classic shell is enforced. The option Show Common tasks in folders will also grayed out. This may be a network policy setting. If your system is in a Domain, the best option is to contact your network admin. For standalone PCs, try the setting given below.


RESOLUTION

Open Registry Editor (Regedit.exe) and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
-and-

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Backup the registry (export the branch) before modifying the values. Read this document for more information

In the right-pane, set ClassicShell to 0. Restart for the changes to take effect. The "Single click" folder option should now be restored.

If the problem persist and if you are using Windows XP Professional Edition, load the Group Policy Editor (GPEDIT.MSC) and go to:

User Configuration | Windows components | Windows Explorer
Double-click the entry "Turn on classic shell" and set it to "Not Configured

Scheduled Tasks - Defrag, how to set up scheduled defrags

I figured this out because i ran into problems with trying to get windows task manager to defrag my hardrive at a certain time by only using built in tools.

Step 1

open up notepad (or favorite editor) and type:


defrag c:
defrag d:
defrag e:
defrag f:
defrag g:
defrag j:


make sure to change the drive letters to one that match your system. After you have customized the drive letters save the file as defrag_script.BAT or whatever is easy for you to remeber. Just make sure its a ".BAT" file. I saved the file into a dir in my documents called scripts but you can put it anywhere.

Step 2

Now that you have the script already made open your control panel and click on "Scheduled Tasks".

Select file>new>Scheduled Task

it should create a file on oin the window called "New Task" slect this and right click to properties.

In the run box click browse and navigate to your script. make sure that you run it with an account that has administrator rights otherwise it might not work.

Now select the schedule tab from the top and input the time and how often. I chose to urn it every noght however you could probably run it once a week and still be fine.

After yo uset the time and how often have a look in the settings tab and see if you need to change anything. Then click okay and your done!


you can also modify the script further by adding various operations on the ends of the defrag command:
CODE

-a  Analyze Only
-f Force defragmentation even if free space is low
-v verbose output
-? Display help text


You can also pipe the command defrag to a log file if you want to see what went on the last time the script ran:
CODE

--this form will rewirte the log file erasing any previous info--
defrag x: -v > x:/logs/defrag_log.txt

--this form will append the new info to the end of the old--
defrag x: -v >> x:/logs/defrag_log.txt

Rename 'Recycle Bin' To Whatever You Want

1. Start, Run, 'Regedit'.
2. Press 'Ctrl'+'F' to open find box and type 'Recycle Bin' to search.
3. Change any value data with 'Recycle Bin' to whatever name you want to give it ( ie, like 'Trash Can' or 'Dump' etc).
4. Press F3 to continue searching for 'Recycle Bin' and change wherever you come across 'Recycle Bin' to new its new name.
5. Repeat step 4 until you have finished with searching and changed all values to its new name.
6. Close regedit and hit F5 on desktop to see the new name on screen.

Note: As a good practice, always backup your registry before changing anything although changing 'Recycle Bin' name is a simple tweak and doesnt affect anything else.

Rapidshare Timelimit

Directions
Rapidshare traces the users IP address to limit each user to a certain amount of downloading per day. To get around this, you need to show the rapidshare server, a different IP address. You can do this one of multiple ways.

Requesting a new IP address from your ISP server.

Here's how to do it in windows:
1. Click Start
2. Click run
3. In the run box type cmd.exe and click OK
4. When the command prompt opens type the following. ENTER after each new line.


ipconfig /flushdns
ipconfig /release
ipconfig /renew
exit


5. Erase your cookies in whatever browser you are using.
6. Try the rapidshare download again.
Frequently you will be assigned a new IP address when this happens. Sometime you will, sometimes you will not. If you are on a fixed IP address, this method will not work. To be honest, I do not know how to do this in linux/unix/etc. If this works for you, you may want to save the above commands into a batch file, and just run it when you need it.

Overclocking_Tutorial

Overclocking takes on 3 forms:
First, is the casual overclocking, easy, and anyone can do it.
Second, is the right way to overclock, taking into account, everything.
Third, if you want serious power, your gonna need to be savy to what does what.

The casual overclocker gains about 5% increase, and really doesn't see any benefit from this, whilst it makes you feel good, no serious damage can be made, by upping the FSB a little, or changing your multiplier, only thing is, you want more.

The correct way to overclock, is to start looking at your system, check the motherboard specs, PSU, amount of harddrives, CD ROMS etc. (high end systems, including the lastest graphic cards will need serious power).

Lets take a base system like my old system setup:

AMD XP1700+ ( Thoroughbred JIUHB DLT3C )
Core Voltage = 1.50v
Maximum Die Temp = 90c
FSB = 266Mhz
(factory unlocked)

Jetway K266B KT266 chipset
DDR + SDR RAM (not together)
No onboard RAID

DDR RAM = Dane Elec PC2700 DDR (333Mhz)
Not registered

2 Hard drvies
1 CD Writer & 1 DVD ROM drive

2 LAN cards

1 PCI soundcard
(onboard sound turned off).

Now, lets look at what they can do:
The Thoroughbred is still the top processor for overclocking, Thunderbirds are just not upto it, even though they are capable of some really decent speeds, same as the Palamino, not to mention the Barton's (these are not what they have been made up to be).
(for the purpose of space, I'll not go into unlocking your CPU)

As you can see, my Thoroughbred has a core voltage of 1.5v, and as my motherboard is capable of giving my processor anything upto 1.85v, there is score for more there.
The FSB on my motherboard is capable of a max of 200Mhz (this is the magic number).
Die temps to a max of 90c is good (never been near it, yet!).

Now, to work out your Mhz on your system, or to check your multiplier or FSB, there is a little calculation you'll need to remember, and it's easy:

Your Mhz is worked out by your multiplier timed your FSB.
example:

CODE
133x10 = 1.33Ghz


Of course you can devide your Mhz with your known FSB to give you your multiplier etc.

Now for easy, I have the results of my previous unlocking tests handy, so I'll use them, and not the current speeds etc.

Standard Multiplier = 11.0
Overclocked Multiplier = 12.0

Standard Voltage = 1.50v
Overclocked Voltage = 1.52v

Standard FSB = 133Mhz
Overclocked FSB = 136Mhz

Standard Speed = 1467Mhz
Overclocked Speed = 1630Mhz

Standard Temps = CPU = 37c SYSTEM = 32c (idle) CPU = 44c SYSTEM = 36c (under load)
Overclocked Temps = CPU = 34c SYSTEM = 29c (idle) CPU 40c SYSTEM 34c (under load)

As you can see, the system is cooler when overclocked, this is due to having the correct cooling setup, and temps for it when it was standard, was standard cooling setup.

Basically, all I have done, is raised the FSB by 3mhz, the voltage by 0.02v and the multiplier by 1.0, this has given me a 163Mhz increase without over strssing my system, but, here is where it gets teadious:

To achieve this, it took me about a week, and this is how I did it:
I started by lowering the multiplier to 5.0, from there I raised the FSB to its max (at the time, have latest BIOS update for mobo, allowing 200Mhz FSB), 166Mhz, this is the correct way of overclocking.
From there, I started to raise the multiplier one by one, getting it back upto the standard multiplier or higher, checking the stability of the system each time.
(currently I am way passed the 136Mhz FSB, as I am running PC2700 DDR).

One thing to look at though, overclocking using the FSB WILL (unless your system allows you to specify it) mess with your PCI & RAM speeds.
Even raising it by 3Mhz can make your PCI cards to not work, and your RAM to get confused and crash your system.

Now your thinking to yourself 'I can do that' and yes you can, anyone can, but.......
It takes TIME, I can't stress that enough, if your going to try this, then you'll need to run your system for at least 6 hours between changing your multiplier, and as you can imagine, this can take a long time to do.

For your information, I used Hot CPU Tester, SETI & played Vietcong for testing purposes.

Now, for the hard part:

As most experienced overclockers will tell you, heat is your enemy, killing heat is your number 1 aim, don't worry about your speed at first, a 50Mhz increasde isn't gonna make your 3D Mark scream through the roof, actually, you'll probably not even get any better than what you did before.

There are several ways of dispersing heat, and they are:

Aircooling
Pro's: Cheap, effective at lower speeds.
Con's: Noisey, dust collectors, need maintanance.

Watercooling:
Pro's: Can lower your CPU by about 10c easily.
Con's: It has water in it, expensive, hard for some to understand.

Pelter:
Pro's: With watercooling, it's the daddy
Con's: ONLY EXPERIENCED PEOPLE NEED TO APPLY, very complicated, power hungry, NOT for the faint hearted. Stupidly expensive.

Aircooling:
Upgrading your CPU fan is the first step, there are several companies that offer aftermarket fans, which are better than the OEM fans are 2 a penny in todays world, but it's NOT just about your CPU fan, your system needs to breath, you need to get rid of 'hot spots' within your system.

Watercooling:
Its easier than most make out, its a good thing, kit prices can be got from about £120 ($200 US), just make sure they are upgradable, as you might want to add, a Northbridge water block & a GPU water block.
Modern day kits & parts are idiot proof, and will not leak, unless you act like Noah.

Pelter:
Pelter cooling is DANGEROUS, minly for your system, fitting it incorrectly, and you could end up with not only a baked CPU but a system that will end up as a very expensive paperweight.
Ask your local overclocking expert for more info.


Basically, if you can get hold of a decent Thoroughbred cored XP, your in luck (just like me), if its unlocked, then your in business, obviously, its not just down to your CPU, your motherboard and RAM will denote whether you can overclock big style or not.
I'd advise ANYONE thinking of overclocking, to research into it more, weigh up the odds on what they want or need, if your on a buget, DON'T attempt it, things can and do go wrong.
Most of the time, its not about 'mines faster than yours' or massive speed increases, its done by most, cause it can be. 90% of the time, you'd be better off buying a new CPU (as prices are so low), but if you get the urge, then a new world awaits you

great tutorial. this should help the OC noobs. If I can add something like you said know your specs of the mobo....and if you are serious about OC'ing dont go and get some generic NO-NAME ram and some ghetto mobo. to get the best stability go with ASUS and ABIT for the mobo and Crucial, Kingston, mushkin for the ram. A great forum for OC'ing is amdmb.com.


Indeed, if you are serious about your overclocking, its advised you only use serious brand names.
Generic parts are always a lower spec, and can easily destroy themselves with even a little stress aimed towards them.

Memory advice, use the folloing:

Kingston (added because of reviews, personally, I'm not sure about them).
Crucial (for Dual Channel DDR ONLY)
OCZ
Mushkin
Corsair
PNY (for EEC rated)
Samsung
Geil (my choice, when I can afford it)

Motherbord advice, use the following:

Asus A7N8X Deluxe nForce2
Asus A7N8X-VM nForce2
Asus A7N8X-X nForce2
Abit KD7-S KT400
Abit KV7 KT600
Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2
Abit NF7-S v2.0 nForce2
MSI K7N2 Delta-L Nforce2
MSI KT6 Delta-LSR KT600
Epox 8RDA+ nForce2
Epox 8RGA+ nForce2

Any nForce2 motherboard would be best, they allow more score for overclocking your system.
_________________

The most commonly found extensions

This chart is a list of the most commonly found extensions, what type of file they are and what program if any they are associated with.

.$$$ Temporary file
.$$A OS/2 program file
.$$F OS/2 database file
.$$S OS/2 spreadsheet file
.$D$ OS/2 planner file
.$DB DBASE IV temporary file
.$ED Microsoft C temporary editor file.
.$VM Microsoft Windows temporary file for virtual managers.
._DD Norton disk doctor recovery file.
._DM Nuts n Bolts disk minder recovery file.
.--- File used to backup sys, ini, dat, and other important files from Windows 3.1 and above.
.075 Ventura Publisher 75x75 dpi screen characters
.085 Ventura Publisher 85x85 dpi screen characters
.091 Ventura Publisher 91x91 dpi screen characters
.096 Ventura Publisher 96x96 dpi screen characters
.0B Pagemaker printer font LineDraw enhanced characters.
.1ST File used by some software manufacturers to represent a file that should be read first before starting the program.
.2GR File used in Windows 3.x to display the graphics on older 286 and 386 computers.
.386 Virtual machine support files for the 386 enhanced mode.
.3GR File used in Windows 3.x to display the graphics on later 386, 486 and Pentium computers.
.4SW 4DOS Swap file
A
A ADA program file or UNIX library
.A3W MacroMedia Authorware 3.5 file
.ABK Autobackup file used with Corel Draw 6 and above.
.ABR Brush file for Adobe Photoshop

.ACT Adobe Photoshop Color table file.

.AD After Dark file.
.ADF Adapter description files.
.ADM After Dark screen saver module.
.ADR After Dark randomizer
.AI Adobe Illustrator file.
.AIF Auto Interchange File Format (AIFF) Audio file.
.ANI Windows 95 / Windows 98 / Windows NT animated mouse cursor file.

.ANS ANSI text file.
.ARJ Compressed file can be used with Winzip / Pkzip.

.ASC ASCII Text file
.ASF Sort for Advanced Streaming Format, file developed by Microsoft. The .ASF file is generally a movie player and can be open with software such as Windows Media Player.
.ASP Microsoft FrontPage Active Server Pages. To open these files use your internet browser.
.AVI Windows Movie file.
B
.BAK Backup file used for important windows files usually used with the System.ini and the Win.ini.
.BAS QBasic program and or Visual Basic Module.
.BAT Batch file that can perform tasks for you in dos, like a macro.

.BFC Microsoft Windows 95 / Windows 98 Briefcase file.

.BG Backgammon game file.
.BIN Translation tables for code pages other than the standard 437.
.BK2 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK3 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK4 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK5 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK6 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK7 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK8 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BK9 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BMP Graphical Bit Mapped File used in Windows Paintbrush.

.BNK Sim City Backup

.BPS Microsoft Works Word Processor File.
.BPT Corel Draw Bitmap master file
.BV1 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV2 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV3 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV4 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV5 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV6 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV7 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV8 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BV9 Word Perfect for Windows Backup file
.BWP BatteryWatch pro file.
C
.C C file used with the C programming language.
.CAB Cabinet file used in Windows 95 and Windows 98 that contains all the windows files and drivers. Information about how to extract a .CAB file can be found on document CH000363.

.CAL Windows Calendar, Supercalculator4 file or Supercal spreadsheet.
.CBL COBOL Program File
.CBT Computer Based Training files.
.CDA CD Audio Player Track.
.CDR Corel Draw Vector file.

.CFB Comptons Multimedia file
.CFG Configuration file
.CFL Corel flowchart file

.CFM Corel FontMaster file / Cold Fusion Template file / Visual dBASE windows customer form
.CHK Scandisk file which is used to back up information that scandisk has found to be bad, found in C root. Because the information within these files are corrupted or reported as bad by Scandisk it is perfectly fine to delete these files, providing you are currently not missing any information. Additional information about scandisk can be found on our scandisk page.

.CL Generic LISP source code.
.CL3 Easy CD Creator layout file.
.CL4 Easy CD Creator layout file.
.CLA Java Class file.
.CLG Disk catalog database
.CLK Corel R.A.V.E. animation file.

.CLL Crick software clicker file
.CLO Cloe image
.CLP Windows Clipboard / Quattro Pro clip art / Clipper 5 compiler script
.CLR WinEdit Colorization word list / 1st reader binary color screen image / PhotStyler color definition
.CLS Visual Basic Class module / C++ Class definition
.CMD Windows Script File also OS/2 command file.
.CMV Corel Movie file.

.CNT Help file (.hlp) Contents (and other file contents)
.CPL Windows 95 / Windows 98 / Windows NT control panel icons.

.CNE Configuration file that builds .COM files.
.CNF Configuration file.
.COB COBOL source code file.
.COD FORTRAN Compiler program code
.COM File that can be executed.
.CPE Fax cover page file
.CPI Code Page Information or Microsoft Windows applet control panel file
.CPP C++ source code file.
.CRD Windows Card file.
.CSV Comma-Separated Variable file. Used primary with databases and spreadsheets / Image file used with CopuShow

.CUR Windows Mouse Cursor.
.CVS Canvas drawing file
.CXX C++ program file or Zortech C++ file
D
.DAT Data file, generally associated or extra data for a program to use.
.DB Paradox database file / Progress database file
.DB2 dBase II file
.DBC Microsoft Visiual Foxpro database container

.DBF dBase II,III,III+,IV / LotusWorks database.
.DBK dBase databse backup / Orcad schematic capture backup file
.DBM Cold Fusion template
.DBO dBase IV compiled program file
.DBQ Paradox memo
.DBT dBase database text file
.DBV Flexfile memo field file
.DBW DataBoss database file
.DBX Database file / DataBeam Image / MS Visual Foxpro Table
.DEV Device Driver
.DIF Document Interchange Format; VisiCalc
.DLL Dynamic Link Library; Allow executable code modules to be loaded on demand, linked at run time, and unloaded when not needed. Windows uses these files to support foreign languages and international/nonstandard keyboards.
.DMO Demo file
.DMP Dump file
.DMD Visual dBASE data module
.DMF Delusion/XTracker Digital Music File
.DMO Demo file
.DMP Dump file
.DMS Compressed archive file
.DOC Microsoft Word Windows/DOS / LotusWorks word processor Windows/DOS /PF S:First Choice Windows/DOS DOT MS Word Windows/DOS.
.DOS Text file and DOS Specification Info
.DOT Microsoft Word Template (Macro).

.DRV Device driver files that attach the hardware to Windows. The different drivers are system, keyboard, pointing devices, sound, printer/ plotter, network, communications adapter.
.DRW Micrografx draw/graph files.
.DT_ Macintosh Data File Fork
.DTA Data file
.DTD SGML Document definition file
.DTF Q&A database
.DTM DigiRekker module
.DTP SecurDesk! Desktop / Timeworks Publisher Text Document / Pressworks Template file
.DUN Dialup Networking exported file.
.DX Document Imaging file / Digital data exchange file

.DXB Drawing interchange binary file
.DXF Autocad drawing interchange format file
.DXN Fujitsu dexNet fax document
.DXR Macromedia director projected movie file
.DYN Lotus 1-2-3 file
.DWG AutoCad Drawing Database
E
.EEB Button bar for Equation Editor in Word Perfect for Windows
.EFT CHIWRITER high resolution screen characters
.EGA EGA screen characters for Ventura Publisher
.ELG Event List text file used with Prosa
.EMS Enhanced Menu System configuration file for PC Tools
.EMU IRMA Workstation for Windows emulation
.ENC ADW Knowledge Ware Encyclopedia
.END Corel Draw Arrow Definition file
.ENG Sprint dictionary file engine
.ENV Word Perfect for Windows environment file.
.EPG Exported PaGe file used with DynaVox
.EPS Encapsulated Postscript, with embedded TIFF preview images.
.EQN Word Perfect for Windows Equation file
.ERD Entity Relation Diagram graphic file
.ERM Entity Relation Diagram model file
.ERR Error log file
.ESH Extended Shell Batch file
.EVT Event file scheduler file for PC Tools
.EX3 Device driver for Harvard graphics 3.0
.EXC QEMM exclude file from optimization file or Rexx program file
.EXE Executable file.
.EXT Extension file for Norton Commander
F
.FDF Adobe Acrobat Forms Document.
.FF AGFA CompuGraphics outline font description.
.FFA Microsoft Fast Find file.

.FFF GUS PnP bank / defFax fax document
.FFL Microsoft Fast Find file / PrintMaster Gold form file

.FFO Microsoft Fast Find file

.FFT DCA/FFT final form text
.FFX Microsoft Fast Find file

.FON Font files to support display and output devices.
.FR3 dBase IV renamed dBase III+ form
.FRF FontMonger Font
.FRG dBase IV uncompiled report
.FRK Compressed zip file used with Apple Macinotsh computers.

.FRM Form file used with various programs / Microsoft Visual Basic Form / FrameMaker document / FrameBuilder file / Oracle executable form / Word Perfect Merge form / DataCAD symbol report file
.FRO dBase IV compiled report / FormFlow file
.FRP PerForm Pro Plus Form
.FRS WordPerfect graphics driver
.FRT FoxPro report file
.FRX Microsoft Visual basic binary form file / FoxPro report file

.FRZ FormFlow file
G
.GIF CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format.
.GR2 286 grabbers that specify which font to use with DOS and Windows.

.GR3 386 grabbers that specify which font to use with DOS and Windows.

.GRA Microsoft Flight simulator graphics file

.GRB Microsoft MS-DOS shell monitor

.GRF Micrografx draw/graph files.
.GRP Microsoft Program Group.

.GZ Compressed Archive file for GZip
H
.HBK Mathcad handbook file
.HDL Procomm Plus alternate download file listing
.HDR Procomm Plus message header
.HDX Help index
.HEX Hex dump
.HFI GEM HP font info
.HGL HP graphics language graphic
.HH C++ Header
.HHH Precompiled Header for Power C
.HHP Help data for Procomm Plus
.HLP Files that contain the Help feature used in windows, cannot be read from DOS.

.HQX Apple Macintosh Binhex text conversion file.

.HSQ Data files associated with the Qaz Trojan.
.HSS Photoshop Hue/Saturation information.
.HST History file / Procomm Plus History File / Host file.
.HTA Hypertext Application (run applications from HTML document).

.HTM Web page files containing HTML or other information found on the Internet.

I

.ICA Citrix file / IOCA graphics file
.ICB Targa Bitmap
.ICC Kodak printer image
.ICE Archive file
.ICL Icon library file
.ICM Image Color Matching profile file
.ICN Microsoft Windows Icon Manager.

.ICO Microsoft Windows Icondraw / Icon.

.ID Disk identification file.
.IDB Microsoft developer intermediate file, used with Microsoft Visual Studio

.IDD MIDI instruments definition
.IDE Integrated Development Environment configuration file
.IDF MIDI instruments drivers file
.IDQ Internet data query file
.IDX Index file
.IFF IFF/LBM (Amiga) used by Computer Eyes frame grabber.
.IMG GEM/IMG (Digital Research) or Ventura Publisher bitmap graphic
.INF Information file that contains customization options.
.INI Files that initialize Windows and Windows apps.
.IPF Installer Script File / OS/2 online documentation for Microsoft source files.
.ISO Compressed file used for an exact duplicate of a CD. .ISO files can be extracted or opened such programs as Win Image that can be found on our shareware download section.

.IWA IBM Writing Assistant Text file.
J
.JAS Graphic
.JPG Graphic commonly used on the Internet and capable of being opened by most modern image editors.
.JS JavaScript file.
.JSB Henter-Joyce Jaws script binary file
.JSD eFAX jet suite document
.JSE JScript encoded script file
.JSH Henter-Joyce Jaws script header file
.JSL PaintShop pro file
.JSM Henter-Joyce Jaws script message file
.JSP Java server page
.JSS Henter-Joyce Jaws script source file
.JT JT fax file
.JTF JPEG tagged Interchange format file
.JTK Sun Java toolkit file
.JTP JetForm file
.JW Justwrite text file
.JWL Justwrite text file library
.JZZ Jazz spreadsheet
K
.KAR Karaoke File used with some audio players.
L
.LGC Program Use Log File (for Windows Program Use Optimization).
.LGO Contains the code for displaying the screen logo.
.LOG Contains the process of certain steps, such as when running scandisk it will usually keep a scandisk.log of what occurred.
.LNK HTML link file used with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

.LWP Lotus Wordpro 96/97 file.
M
.MAC Macintosh macpaint files.
.MBX Microsoft Outlook Express mailbox file.

.MD Compressed Archive file
.MDA Microsoft Access Add-in / Microsoft Access 2 Workgroup.
.MDB Microsoft Access Database / Microsoft Access Application.
.MDE Microsoft Access Database File
.MDF Menu definition file
.MDL Digitrakker Music Module / Rational Rose / Quake model file

.MDM Telix Modem Definition
.MDN Microsoft Access Blank Database Template
.MDP Microsoft Developer Studio Project
.MDT Microsoft Access Add-in Data
.MDW Microsoft Access Workgroup Information
.MDX dBase IV Multiple Index
.MDZ Microsoft Access Wizard Template
.MEB WordPerfect Macro Editor bottom overflow file
.MED WordPerfect Macro Editor delete save / OctaMed tracker module
.MEM WordPerfect Macro Editor macro / Memory File of variables
.MID Midi orchestra files that are used to play with midi sounds built within the sound card.

.MIX Power C object file / Multiplayer Picture file (Microsoft Photodraw 2000 & Microsoft Picture It!) / Command & Conquer Movie/Sound file

.MOD Winoldap files that support (with grabbers) data exchange between DOS apps and Windows apps.
.MOV File used with Quick Time to display a move.

.MP1 MPEG audio stream, layer I
.MP2 MPEG audio stream, layer II
.MP3 MPEG audio stream, layer III; High compressed audio files generally used to record audio tracks and store them in a decent sized file available for playback. See our MP3 page for additional information.

.MPG MPEG movie file.
.MSN Microsoft Network document / Decent mission file

.MTF Windows metafile.
.MTH Derive Math file
.MTM Sound file / MultiTracker music module
.MTV Picture file
.MTW Minitab data file
.MU Quattro menu
.MUL Ultima Online game
.MUP Music publisher file
.MUS Audio file
.MVB Database file / Microsoft multimedia viewer file

.MVE Interplay video file

.MVF Movie stop frame file
.MWP Lotus Wordpro 97 smartmaster file
.MXD ArcInfo map file
.MXT Microsoft C Datafile

.MYD Make your point presentation file.
N
.N64 Nintendo 64 Emulator ROM image.

.NA2 Netscape Communicator address book.
.NAB Novell Groupwise address book

.NAP Napster Music security definition file.
.NDF NeoPlanet Browser file
.NDX Indexed file for most databases.
.NES Nintendo Entertainment system ROM image.

.NIL Norton guide online documentation
.NGF Enterasys Networks NetSight file.

.NHF Nero HFS-CD compilation or a general Nero file
.NIL Norton icon lybrary file.
.NLB Oracle 7 data file
.NLD ATI Radeon video driver file,

.NMI SwordSearcher file.
.NON LucasArts Star Wars - Tie fighter mouse options file.

.NOW Extension commonly used for readme text files.
.NRA Nero Audio CD file.
.NRB Nero CD-ROM boot file.
.NS2 Lotus Notes 2 database,
.NS5 Lotus Notes Domino file,
.NSO NetStudio easy web graphics file.
.NT Windows NT startup file.
.NUM File used with some Software Manufactures to store technical support numbers or other phone numbers, should be readable from DOS and or Windows.
O
.OCA Control Typelib Cache.
.OCX Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) control extension.
.OLB Object library
.OLD Used for backups of important files incase they are improperly updated or deleted.
.OLE Object Linking and Embedding object file
.OLI Olivetti text file
.ORI Original file.
P
.PAB Personal Address Book, file used with Microsoft Outlook.

.PB WinFax Pro phone book file
.PBD PowerBuilder dynamic library / Faxit phone book file
.PBF Turtle Beach Pinnacle bank file
.PBK Microsoft phonebook file

.PBL PowerBuilder library file
.PBM UNIX portable bitmap fuke
.PBR PowerBuilder resource
.PBI Profiler binary input file
.PBM PBM portable bit map graphic
.PBO Profiler binary output
.PBT Profiler binary table
.PCX Microsoft Paint & PC Paintbrush Windows/DOS.

.PDA Bitmap graphic file
.PDB TACT data file
.PDD Adobe PhotoDeluxe Image.

.PDF Adobe Acrobat Reader file which can only be read by Adobe Acrobat (to get file downloaded Adobe Acrobat from our Download Page.

.PDL Borland C++ project description language file.

.PDS Graphic file / Pldasm source code file.
.PDV Paintbrush printer driver.
.PDW Professional Draw document.
.PIC Picture / Viewer Frame Class.
.PIF Program Information File that configures a DOS app to run efficiently in windows.
.PJF Paintjet soft font file.
.PL Harvard palette file / PERL program file

.PL3 Harvard chart palette
.PLB Foxpro library / LogoShow Screensaver file
.PLC Lotus Add-in
.PLD PLD2 source file
.PLG REND386 / AVRIL file
.PLI Oracle 7 data description
.PLL Prelinked library
.PLM DisorderTracker2 module
.PLN WordPerfect spreadsheet file
.PLR Descent Pilot file

.PLS WinAmp MPEG playlist file / DisorderTracker 2 Sample file / Shoutcast file / MYOB data file
.PLT AutoCAD HPGL vector graphic plotter file / Gerber sign-making software file / Betley's CAD Microstation driver configuration for plotting
.PLY Autodesk polygon
.PP Compressed archive file.
.PP4 Picture Publisher.
.PP5 Picture Publisher.
.PPA Power Point Add-in.
.PPB WordPerfect Print preview button bar.
.PPD PostScript Printer description.
.PPF Turtle Beach Pinnacle program file.
.PPI Microsoft PowerPoint graphic file.

.PPL Harvard (now Serif) Polaroid Palette Plus ColorKey Driver.
.PPM PBM Portable Pixelmap Graphic.
.PPO Clipper Preprocessor Output.
.PPP Serif PagePlus Publication.
.PPS Microsoft PowerPoint Slideshow.

.PPT Microsoft PowerPoint presentation.

.PPX Serif PagePlus publication.
.PPZ Microsoft PowerPoint Packaged Presentation.

.PS2 File to support the Micro Channel Architecture in 386 Enhanced mode.
.PSD Adobe Photoshop image file.

.PST Post Office Box file used with Microsoft Outlook usually mailbox.pst unless named otherwise.
.PWA Password agent file.
.PWD Password file.
.PWF ProCite Workforms
.PWL Password file used in Windows 95 and Windows 98 is stored in the Windows directory.
.PWP Photoworks image file
.PWZ PowerPoint wizard
Q
.QIC Windows backup file
.QT Quick Time Movie File
.QXD Quark Express file
.QXL Quark Xpress element library
.QXT Quark Xpress template file
R
.RA Real Audio file.
.RAM Real Audio file.
.RAR Compressed file similar to .ZIP uses different compression program to extract. See our recommended download page for a program that can be used to extract .RAR files.
.RAS File extension used for raster graphic files.

.RD1 Descent registered level file

.RD3 Ray Dream designer graphics file / CorelDraw 3D file
.RD4 Ray Dream designer graphics file
.RD5 Ray Dream designer graphics file
.RDB TrueVector rules database
.RDF Resource description framework file / Chromeleon report definition
.RDL Descent registered level file / RadioDestiny radio stream

.RDX Reflex data file
.REC Sound file used with Windows Sound Recorder.

.RLE Microsoft Windows Run Length Encoded (Run Length Encoded (bitmap format) file that contains the actual screen logo).
.RMI Microsoft RMID sound file.
.RPB Automotive diagnostic file.
.RPD Rapidfile database
.RPM Red Hat Package Manager / RealMedia Player file.

.RPT Various Report file
.RTF Rich Text Format file
.RWZ Microsoft Outlook rules wizard file

S
.SAV File that usually contains saved information such as a saved game.
.SC2 Maps used in Sim City 2000.

.SCP Dialup Networking script file.
.SCR Source files for the .INI files, or sometimes may be used as screen savers.
.SD Sound Designer I audio file
.SD2 Sound Designer II flattened file / Sound Designer II data fork file / SAS database file
.SDA StarOffice drawing file / SoftCuisine data archive
.SDC StarOffice spreadsheet
.SDD StarOffice presentation
.SDF Standard data format file / Schedule data file / System file format / Autodesk mapguide spatial data file
.SDK Roland S-series floppy disk image
.SDL SmartDraw library
.SDN Small archive
.SDR SmartDraw drawing
.SDS StarOffice chart file / Raw MIDI sample dump standard file
.SDT SmartDraw template
.SDV Semicolon divided value file
.SDW Sun Microsystems StarOffice file document file similar to the Microsoft Office .DOC file.
.SDX MIDI sample dump standard files compacted by SDX
.SEA Short for Self Extracting Archive. Compressed file used with the Macintosh.
.SH Archive file
.SH3 Harvard (now Serif) presentation file
.SHB Corel Background file
.SHG Hotspot Editor Hypergraphic
.SHK Macintosh Compressed Archive file
.SHM WordPerfect Shell Macro
.SHP 3D Studio Shapes File / other 3D related file
.SHR Archive file
.SHS Shell scrap object file
.SHW Corel presentation / WordPerfect Slide Show / Show File
.SLK Multiplan file.
.SND Sound Clip file / Raw unsigned PCM data / AKAI MPC-series sample / NeXT sound / Macintosh sound resource file
.SNG MIDI song
.SNM Netscape Mail
.SNO SNOBOL program file
.SNP Snapview snapshot file
.SUM Summary file.
.SWF Macromedia Flash file.
.SWP Extension used for the Windows Swap File usually Win386.Swp. This file is required by Windows and generally can grow very large in size sometimes up to several hundred megs. This file is used to swap information between currently running programs and or memory. If this file is deleted from the computer Windows will be unable to load and will need to be reinstalled.
.SYS System and peripheral drivers.
T
.TDF Trace Definition File used with OS/2
.TGA Targa file
.TIF Tag Image Format that includes most 24-bit color.
.TLB Remote automation truelib files / OLE type library / Visual C++ type library
.TLD Tellix file
.TLE NASA two-line element set
.TLP Microsoft project timeline fie

.TLT Trellix web design file
.TLX Trellix data file
.TMP Temporary files.
.TRM Windows Terminal.
.TXT Text file that can be read from windows of from DOS by using the Edit, Type, or Edlin.
U
.UNI MikMod (UniMod) format file / Forcast Pro data file
.UNK Unknown file type, sometimes used when a file is received that cannot be identified
.UNX Text file generally associated with UNIX.

.URL File used with some browsers such as Internet Explorer linking you to different web pages. Internet Shortcut.
V
.VB VBScript file
.VBA vBase file
.VBD ActiveX file
.VBE VBScript encoded script file
.VBG Visual Basic group project file
.VBK VisualCADD backup file
.VBL User license control file
.VBP Visual Basic project file
.VBR Remote automation registration files
.VBS Microsoft Visual Basic Script file for quick programs and in some cases can be used as a virus file.
.VBW Visual Basic project workplace
.VBX Visual Basic extension file
.VBZ Wizard launch file
.VC VisiCalc Spreadsheet file.
.VCD VisualCADD Drawing file.
.VCE Natural MicroSystems voice file.
.VCF vCard File / Vevi Configuration file.
.VCS Microsoft Outlook vCalander file.

.VCT FoxPro class library.
.VCW Microsoft Visual C++ workbench information file.

.VCX FoxPro class library.
.VDA Targa bitmap
.VDD Short for Virtual Device Driver. Additional information can be found here.

.VDO VDOScript file
.VDX No such file extension - Likely you meant to .vxd
.VM Virtual Machine / Virtual Memory file.
.VMM Virtual Machine (Memory Manager) file.
.VMF Ventura font characteristics file / FaxWorks audio file
.VMH
.VS2 Roland-Bass transfer file.
.VSD Visio drawing.
.VSL GetRight download list file.
.VSS Visio stencil.
.VST Video Template / Truevision Vista graphic / Targa Bitmap/
.VSW Visio workspace file.
.VXD Windows system driver file allowing a driver direct access to the Windows Kernel, allowing for low level access to hardware.
W
.WAB Microsoft Outlook Express personal address book.

.WAD File first found in IdSoftware games such as DOOM, Quake, as well as most new games similar to these.
.WAV Sound files in Windows open and played with sound recorder.

.WB1 Quattro Pro Notebook
.WB2 Quattro Pro Spreadsheet
.WBF Microsoft Windows Batch File

.WBK Wordperfect document / workbook
.WBT Winbatch batch file
.WCD Wordperfect macro token list
.WCM Microsoft Works data transmission file / Wordperfect Macro

.WCP Wordperfect product information description
.WDB Microsoft Works database

.WEB Web source code file
.WFM dBASE Form object
.WFN CorelDRAW font
.WFX Winfax data file
.WG1 Lotus 1-2-3 worksheet

.WG2 Lotus 1-2-3 for OS/2 worksheet

.WID Ventura publisher width table
.WIN Foxpro - dBASE window file
.WIZ Microsoft Publisher page wizard

.WK1 Lotus 1-2-3 all versions / LotusWorks spreadsheet.

.WK3 Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows /Lotus 1-2-3 Rel.3.

.WKS Lotus 1-2-3 Rel lA,2.0,2.01, also file used with Microsoft Works.

.WLG Dr. Watson log file.

.WMA Windows Media Audio file.
.WMF Windows Metafile. Also see WMF dictionary definition.

.WMZ Windows Media Player theme package file.
.WPD WordPerfect Windows/DOS.
.WPG WordPerfect Graphical files Windows/DOS.
.WPM WordPerfect Macro file.
.WPS MS Works word processor Windows/DOS.
.WRI Windows Write.
.WRK Lotus 1-2 31.0,1.01,1.1/ Symphony 1,1.01.
.WRI Symphony l.1,1.2,2 / Microsoft Write file.
X
.XIF Wang image file / Xerox image file
.XLB Microsoft Excel File.

.XLS Microsoft Excel File.

.XM Sound file / Fast tracker 2 extended module
.XML Extensible markup language file.
.XNK Exchange shortcut
.XOT Xnetech job output file
.XPM X picsmap graphic
.XQT SuperCalc macro sheet
.XRF Cross Reference
.XR1 Epic MegaGames Xargon File

.XSL XML Style sheet
.XSM LEXIS-NEXIS tracker
.XTB LocoScript external translation table
.XWD X Windows dump file

.XWF Yamaha XG Works file
.XXE Xxencoded file
.XY XYWrite text file
.XY3 XYWrite text file
.XY4 XYwrite IV document
.XYP XYwrite III plus document
.XYW XYwrite Windows 4.0 document
Y
.Y Amiga YABBA compressed file archive
.Y01 Paradox index file
.Y02 Paradox index file
.Y03 Paradox index file
.Y04 Paradox index file
.Y05 Paradox index file
.Y06 Paradox index file
.Y07 Paradox index file
.Y08 Paradox index file
.Y09 Paradox index file
.YUV Yuv graphics file
.YZ YAC compressed file archive.
Z
.Z Compressed file that can hold thousands of files. To extract all the files Pkzip or Winzip will need to be used. UNIX / Linux users use the compress / uncompress command to extract these files.
.ZIP Compressed file that can hold thousands of files. To extract all the files Pkzip or Winzip will need to be used.

sâmbătă, 18 iunie 2011

Lots Of Windows Xp Tips, Take A Look !

Lock XP Workstation (#1)

You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

Remove Windows XP system software (#2)

XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

New commands (#3)

For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.

Windows XP supports IPv6 (#4)

XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.

Kill tasks from the command line (#5)

You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.

Enable ClearType by default (#6)

XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology-- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry

HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/ControlPanel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

Run program as different user (#7)

You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

Speed up the Start Menu (#8)

The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

Rename multiple files at once (#9)

You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetized groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In-Groups.

Show cover art in Media Player (#10)

Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

Display Hibernate Option on the Shut Down dialog (#11)

For some reason, Hibernate isn't available from the default Shut Down dialog. But you can enable it simply enough, by holding down the SHIFT key while the dialog is visible. Now you see it, now you don't!

Enable ClearType on the Welcome Screen! (#12)

As laptop users and other LCD owners are quickly realizing, Microsoft's ClearType technology in Windows XP really makes a big difference for readability. But the this feature is enabled on a per-user basis in Windows XP, so you can't see the effect on the Welcome screen; it only appears after you logon.

But you can fix that. Fire up the Registry Editor and look for the following keys:

(default user) HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \
FontSmoothing (String Value)
HKEY_USERS \ .Default \ Control Panel \ Desktop \
FontSmoothingType (Hexadecimal DWORD Value)

Make sure both of these values are set to 2 and you'll have ClearType enabled on the Welcome screen and on each new user by default.

Change User Picture (#13)

Click on the Icon at the top of the start menu. Select desired picture from resulting screen Windows 2000 style logon. To revert back to the Win2k style logon so you can log on as the administrator and other options, press ctrl+alt+delete twice at the logon screen. Change the location of the My Music or My Pictures folders:

In Windows 2000, Microsoft added the ability to right-click the My Documents folder and choose a new location for that folder in the shell. With Windows XP, Microsoft has elevated the My Music and My Pictures folders to the same "special shell folder" status of My Documents, but they never added a similar (and simple) method for changing those folder's locations. However, it is actually pretty easy to change the location of these folders, using the following method.

Open a My Computer window and navigate to the location where you'd like My Music (or My Pictures) to reside. Then, open the My Documents folder in a different window. Drag the My Music (or My Pictures) folder to the other window, and Windows XP will update all of the references to that folder to the new location, including the Start menu.

Protect Your Files From Unauthorized Users (#14)

Other users with permission to delete a file (users with Modify or Full Control permission) can't use your encrypted files-but they can make them difficult for you to use. Any such user can rename your files, which can make them difficult to find, and can also delete your files. (Even if the user merely deletes them to the Recycle Bin and doesn't remove them altogether, the deleted files are unavailable to you because you don't have access to any other user's Recycle Bin.) Therefore, if you're concerned about protecting your files from other authorized users as well as from a thief who steals your computer, you should modify the NTFS permissions to prevent any type of modification by other users.

Shutdown Your System in a Hurry (#15)

If you need to shut down in a hurry-or if a frozen application prevents you from shutting down in the normal ways-you can use the following procedure. Be aware, however, that you won't get an opportunity to save open documents. To perform an emergency shutdown, press Ctrl+Alt+Del to display Task Manager. Open the Shut down menu and hold down the Ctrl key as you click the Turn Off command. Poof! If your computer is part of a domain, the procedure is similar. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and then hold down Ctrl when you click Shut Down. In this situation, you'll get a warning message pointing out-quite correctly-that this should be used only as a last resort.

Provide Personal Support (#16)

It never fails: when friends, co-workers, or family members discover that you're a Windows expert, you get pressed into service as an unpaid support technician. If the party asking for help is running any edition of Windows XP and has an active Internet connection, your job is much easier. Have the other person send you a Remote Assistance request; when you accept the request, you connect directly to their computer and can edit Registry settings, fix file associations, set System options, and perform just about any other troubleshooting or repair task, just as if you were sitting at the other person's desk.

Quickly Fix Connectivity Problems (#17)

Are you having trouble connecting to other computers on your local area network? If your network uses a hardware firewall that assigns IP addresses to each machine and you're certain you've configured all other components correctly, check to see whether the Internet Connection Firewall is enabled. That component can effectively block communication between PCs on the network.

Hack IE Title Bar (#18)

This can be an impressive bit of personalization. Use your name or moniker to brand Internet Explorer. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\ and left-click on Main to change the string "Window Title" to whatever you wish.

Unload DLLs (#19)

To prevent Windows from caching DLLs after the program using them has closed, follow this procedure: Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ then left-click on Explorer. Right-click (as above) and create the DWORD

AlwaysUnloadDLL with a value of 1. This requires a reboot to take effect. This will allow memory to be used more efficiently.

Registry Hacks (#20)

Editing the Windows Registry, while much more common now than in years past, is still not to be entered into lightly. You can break Windows, cause boot failure. I know you're gonna do it anyway; why else would you be reading this. Just be careful, OK?

These are few because, for the most part WinXP can be customized through the interlace or with third-party freeware (as above).

All of the tips below require running regedit. To do so, hit 'Start/Run' then type 'regedit' and follow the instructions.

Naturally, I take no responsibility for any damage or loss of data incurred in the remote possibility that something goes terribly wrong.

The Ultimate Appearance Tweak (#21)

Microsoft said: "You can connect up to 10 monitors to your Windows XP-based computer and display numerous programs or windows at one time. You can use your mouse to move items from one monitor to another. You can open a different file on each monitor. Or several. Or you can stretch one item across several monitors; so for example, you can see more columns in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or the entire layout of a Web page, without scrolling." Consider it. Monitors and PCI video cards are pretty cheap now. Windows recognizes the addition & allows easy adjustments on the 'Display Properties/Settings' menu.

Save Streaming Media (#22)

It's cool to listen to MP3s (or watch movies) over the Internet. Often, saving this media, however, seems impossible. Hey, if it plays on your computer, it's on your hard drive. Once the file is fully loaded and with folder view set to show hidden and systems folders, searches for the media (.mp3 or .mpg). There it is!

Securing the Paging File (#23)

If you're truly concerned about the possibility of your computer falling into the wrong hands, you should be sure that you don't leave any tracks in the paging file. By default, when you shut down your system, the paging file remains intact. People who've access to your computer could conceivably look through the unencrypted paging file to find information they shouldn't have.

Assign a Keyboard Shortcut (#24)

Click in the Shortcut Key field and press a keyboard combination that you want to use for launching or switching to this program. The shortcut key you assign must consist of one character key (a letter, number, or symbol) plus at least two of the following three keys: Ctrl, Alt, and Shift. (If you press a character key only, Windows automatically adds Ctrl+Alt.)

Shortcut keys work only when assigned to a program shortcut on the Start menu, the Programs menu, or the Desktop. The shortcuts you define will not work if it conflicts with a combination used in the program whose window has the focus.

Please remember, we cannot accept responsibility with what you decide to do with these tips. These tips act as a guide to tweaking and changing Windows XP from the default settings. If you are unsure about how to make these changes then don't meddle !