Shortcuts with Windows button

   If you press the windows logo on the key board, the Start menu appears, but it’s also the first keystroke for many shortcuts. 

  These are especially useful for starting or executing basic computer functions such as opening Windows
Explorer or closing every window to display your Desktop.
Windows Help (WINDOWS-F1) - Open the Windows Help And Support Center.
Run (WINDOWS-R) - Open the Run dialog box; with this function, you can open files, folders, and programs by typing in commands.
System Properties (WIN-BREAK) - View information in the System Properties dialog box.
Minimize All (WIN-M) - Minimize all open windows and see only the Desktop.
Restore All (WIN-SHIFT-M) - Restore all open windows to resume your work.
Search (WIN-F) - Open the Search utility.
My Computer (WIN-E) - Open My Computer.
Lock (WIN-L) - Lock your computer to prevent others from accessing your Windows session

Stopping Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing

In Windows XP Professional, you have two remote networking features called
Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop Sharing. These remote networking features are very helpful in a variety of situations but if you don't use them, it is good idea to disable them to save boot time.
You can always enable them later if you want to use them.

1. Open the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and choose Properties.
2. Click the remote tab.
3. Clear both check boxes to disable Remote Assistance and Remote Desktop

Folder options missing in windows

Many of us sometimes find the folder options missing in windows explorer.

The solution is:

Open Run and then type "gpedit.msc".
Now goto User Configuration > Administrative templates
> Windows Component > Windows Explorer.

Click on Windows Explorer you will find the 3rd option on the right side of
screen "Removes the Folder Option menu item from the Tools menu"

Just check it, if it is not configured then change it to enable by double clicking
on it and after applying again set it to not configured.
Then restart the windows.

Ways to speed up the pc

• Disk Cleanup Utility

       You may not realize it, but just because you finish with a file doesn't mean

your computer does. Everyone should use the Windows "Disk Cleanup Utility" to delete old,

unused, and temporary files that clog your hard drive.

       Click Start, point at All Programs (or Programs), Accessories, System Tools,

and click Disk Cleanup. Analyze your hard drive for files you can eliminate and it 

may shock you to see how much hard drive space (and speed) you can free up with a few clicks.

• "Defrag"

       Sometimes lack of speed simply results from your computer working too hard

to find the files it needs. You can solve this problem by "defragging" your

hard drive.

        Click Start, point to All Programs (or Programs), Accessories, System Tools,

and click Disk Defragmentor. Choose the disk you want to defragment and

expect to let the program run for several hours.

• Uninstall Unused Software

        We all maintain software on our systems we rarely, if ever, use.

That software can steal system resources. Click Start, Control Panel, and

"Add Remove Programs" to pull up a screen that allows you to remove old

programs you don't use anymore.

         Simply select and uninstall all programs you know for sure you don't need or

want.

• Buy More RAM

        Increasing your RAM, a computer's memory, can dramatically increase speed

when running certain operations or programs. RAM costs so little now that

you should install the maximum amount of memory your system can handle.

•  Stop unnecessary programs   At Start up

        Many programs load into the system tray in the lower right of your computer's

desktop and consume system resources even if you never use them.

Click Start, Run, type in msconfig, and press Enter. 

Click the "Startup" tab to see a list of programs that automatically start with Windows.

Clear the check box next to programs you know you don't want to load at

startup. But don't clear any checkbox unless you are 100% certain of a

program's purpose. Once you finish, click OK and it will prompt you to restart

Windows.

Computer virus

                Computer viruses can and do strike at any moment. They assault your computer by destroying data, and rendering your system useless.

                 Malicious codes come in three basic formulas:
   Viruses are small programs that reproduce themselves for the purpose of causing some damage.
    Trojan Horses are disguised as gifts which may come as an attachment in your email. Once ran its purpose is to cause do harm to your system as well.
     Then you may come in contact with worms which cause damage by copying themselves over networks as wells as individual systems. These codes alters not just one system but several within a network.
                 After you enhance your knowledge of malicious code, know the symptoms of an infected system. Strange PC behavior, an increase or decrease of data in a file, pop up messages, random graphics, and files being deleted are some symptoms of your system having a virus.

   The best way to find and remove viruses is with the installation popular anti-virus software from Norton or McAfee. These programs readily identify infections as well as promptly remove them.

   One possibilty on Window xp, Windows Vista, Windows 7 is system restore, which restores the registry and critical system files to a previous checkpoint.

   Re installing operating system is another approach to virus removal.

Choose a password in this way

Choose a password in such a way that

• Passwords based on personal details are easy to guess. So, avoid personal details as password
• One option to crack your password is brute force dictionary attack. So, choose your password that you won't find in any dictionary.
• The more characters a password contains the more secure it becomes, so fill that password field to the maximum.
• Choose a password as a combination of upper and lower case letters.
• Add numbers, non- alphabetic characters to your password.
• Don't write the password anywhere. Just remember it.
• Use different password to each login Id.
• Logout when you're done.
• Web pages and passwords can be cached in that browser, so close down your browser window.

Changing the color of the MS_DOS window

            COLOR is the command used to change the foreground and background colors in MS-DOS window.

-COLOR attribute

           

attribute specifies color attribute of the console output.

Color attributes are specified by TWO hex digits. First digit corresponds to the background, the second digit corresponds to the foreground. Each digit has the following values.

 

0= Black         1= Blue               2= Green            3= Aqua

4= Red            5= Purple            6=Yellow            7= White

8= Gray           9=Light Blue       A= Light Green    B= Light Aqua

C= Light Red   D= Light Purple   E= Light Yellow   F= Bright White

"COLOR 9D" produces Light Purple on Light Blue.

Simple commands in MS-DOS prompt

• ASSIGN - Assign a drive letter to an alternate letter.
• ASSOC - View the file associations.
• CD - Changes directories.
• CHCP - Supplement the International keyboard and character set information.
• CHDIR - Changes directories.
• CHKDSK - Check the hard disk drive running FAT for errors.
• CHKNTFS - Check the hard disk drive running NTFS for errors.
• CLS - Clears the screen.
•  CONTROL - Open control panel icons from the MS-DOS prompt.
•  DATE - View or change the systems date.
• DEL - Deletes one or more files.
• DIR - List the contents of one or more directory.
• SHUTDOWN - Shutdown the computer from the MS-DOS prompt.
  
  

Run commands to access the control panel in windows Xp

                Type these commands in Run to access the items in the control panel in windows Xp.

• Add/Remove Programs - appwiz.cpl 
• Date/Time Properties control - timedate.cpl 
• Display Properties control - desk.cpl
• Internet Properties control - inetcpl.cpl
• Mouse Properties control - main.cpl
• Multimedia Properties control - mmsys.cpl 
• System Properties control - sysdm.cpl

Changing mouse cursor in Windows Xp

The mouse cursors are yet another item that is saved in the Theme file. Many different pointer schemes are included with Windows XP.
To get your cursors set perfectly for your Theme file, do the following:
1. Click the Start button and select Run.
2. Type main.cpl and click OK to open up Mouse Properties.
3. Next, click the Pointers tab.
4. Once you are there, you have two options to customize the cursors: You can use the drop-down Scheme box to change all of the pointers at once to different styles, by selecting a different cursor scheme from the list.When you select the different schemes, all of the cursors will change automatically. Alternatively, if you do not like the cursor schemes, you can individually select a cursor from the customize box list by scrolling through the list and selecting the cursor you want to change. Then, hit the Browse button to change it.
5. When you are finished customizing your cursors, just hit the OK button and you are finished.

Changing the system sounds in Windows Xp

                 Changing the event sounds is very simple. Just follow these steps:
 

1. Click the Start Menu and select Run.

 2. Type mmsys.cpl in the box and click OK to launch the system Sounds and Audio Devices Properties.

 3. Once the Sounds and Audio Devices Properties loads, click the Sounds tab.

4. Next, to adjust the sound clip for a specific event, click the event that you want to modify, by navigating though the Program Events box.

5. Once you have an event selected, the Sounds drop-down list will become enabled and you will be able to select the sound clip that you want to use. You can select (None) from the top of the list if you do not want to use a sound for a specific program event. If youcannot find a sound that you like on the list, you can use the Browse button to pick a specific sound file on your computer to use.

6. When you are finished with your changes, just click OK to save.

To make icons on the desktop large

                    The normal size for icons in Windows XP is 32 X 32 pixels.Windows XP also has support for larger icons, which are 48 X 48 pixels.

Follow these steps:

1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties.
2. 2. Click the Appearance tab and then click the Effects button.
3. Check the Use Large Icons box.
4. Click OK to save your changes.
5. Click the OK button again to close display properties.

 

Removing a user name from the Welcome screen of windows Xp

                     The welcome screen of the windows Xp present a list of all of the user accounts on the computer. Windows Xp has a feature to hide the user accounts from the Welcome screen, which we want to use a user account secretly.

                    To hide a user from the Welcome screen, all you have to do is create an entry on the list for the
user you want to hide. Follow these steps to find out how to add a user to the list:

1.  Click the Start button and select Run, then type regedit in the box and click OK.
2.  This will start up the system Registry Editor. Expand the following keys: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, SOFTWARE, Microsoft, WindowsNT, CurrentVersion,Winlogon, SpecialAccounts, and UserList. 
3.  You should now see the list of the account names, and parts of account names, that the system will look for and will hide.To add a name to the list, just right-click and select New, then select DWORD value. A DWORD is a specific data type of an entry in the system registry. In short, the DWORD data type allows an integer value to be stored.
4. When the new key is created, enter in the name of the user’s account as the name of the key. Once you have done this, you can close regedit.

               After log off and back on or reboot, the user will not be displayed on the Welcome screen. If you ever want to log into the account that you hid from the Welcome screen, just press Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your keyboard once, twice, and you will be able to type in the name of the user under which you want to log in. This way, you can hide an account from your family or friends but can still log into it.

                If you ever change your mind and want the account to be displayed on the Welcome screen again, just delete the entry that you made in the list in the System Registry and everything will
be back the way it was.