Hacker's Workshop

Speed Up A Slow Computer

2009-03-08T03:08:00.000-07:00

first off in the bottom right hand corner of your computer if you see alot of icons start up there when you first start your computer then this is for you if you dont know already how to get rid of em.

Press your Start Button (bottom left) and go to "run"
now type in: msconfig
now you will get a box that pops up and will tell you bunch of stuff dont mess with anything else other than what I tell you otherwise you could do something really bad (possible) go to your "startup" tab on the top right of the screen where it usually is and click it.

Now you will have a closed in box with bunch of filenames n addresses and more boxes with checks in them. Now if your like me you dont want anything startin up when you start you computer up or while your even doing anything cause it slows you down. Now unless your like me right now 1 have 1 thing starting up when my computer starts up and thats my settin for my overclocked vid card. But other than that uncheck every box and then hit apply and ok. Then window you were jus in will now close and ask you if you want to restart or wait till later to restart.

Either way when you shut it off and then turn it back on the settins will kick in

Save Your Desktop Settings

2009-02-21T06:47:00.000-08:00

Recognize this ?? You've got all your windows sized, icons placed the way they look great.... explorer crash! (Or, the thing crashes not that much anymore, but it seems to forget sometimes...) And there you go again.. but, there's a way to recover all your settings, that's windows placing, sizing and icon positions, with just one click (Win 9x/2k).

First, make it all look, once more, just the way you want it to be. Choose about 30 folders you access frequently to look good (don't forget your win- and system dir, program files etc.).

Now these settings are in the Registry, open it and go to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer
Select the folder 'Streams'. Choose 'Registry' in the toolbar, and 'export registry-key'. The information in the key is being stored in a .reg file, which is a simple textfile. Name & store where you want. Then do the same with the folder 'StreamMRU'.

Close RegEdit and open the last file with notepad. Remove the first line (REGEDIT4) and copy the rest. Then open your first file and paste it at the end. Save, close and make a shortcut to your desktop. And then, have fun and mess up all your favorite folders. Once exhausted (double)click your shortcut and confirm you wanna enter this info into the Registry. Rejoice!

A lot of graphic cards come with some software to save your desktop icon layout. If yours didn't, alternatives:

Softwarium Restore Desktop http://www.softwarium.com/download/RDSetup.exe "magically restores icons' positions after display resolution changing. You can also restore saved icons' positions manually by rightclicking on the desktop" (free, all versions).

(!!) An even more integrated solution, that works in all versions, is using layout.dll/layout.reg http://www.virtualplastic.net/download/hacks/layout.zip from the NT 4 Resource Kit. Put the .dll in your (9x) \Windows\System, (2k) \Winnt\System32 or (XP) \Windows\System32 folder, import the .reg file and have the option to save and restore (one configuration) in the rightclickmenu of My Computer and the bin (14 kB, source: Jorge Walker at Axcel216).

Change Windows Explorer Default Directory

2009-02-09T06:36:00.000-08:00

When you open Windows Explorer (by choosing the Window key and "E" simultaneously or by choosing Start, all Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer), you can change the directory that appears by default. If you choose Start, all Programs, Accessories, and then right-click on Windows Explorer and choose Properties, you can modify the "Target" directory. To go to your C: drive, type simply C:\ in the Target box and choose OK. You can also enter a shortcut key on this screen, telling Windows the character or combination of characters you want to type to automatically open Windows Explorer. You can even change the icon or specify that you always want Explorer to open up in full-screen mode.

Untold Windows Secrets

2009-02-06T18:02:00.000-08:00

Welcome to another Hacking Truths Manual. This time I have a collection of Tips and Tricks which no body normally knows, the secrets which Microsoft is afraid to tell the people, the information which you will seldom find all gathered up and arranged in a single file. To fully reap this Manual you need to have a basic understanding of the Windows Registry, as almost all the Tricks and Tips involve this file.

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Important Note: Before you read on, you need to keep one thing in mind. Whenever you make changes to the Windows Registry you need to Refresh it before the changes take place. Simply press F5 to refresh the registry and enable the changes. If this does not work Restart your system

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Exiting Windows the Cool and Quick Way

Normally it takes a hell lot of time just Shutting down Windows, you have to move your mouse to the Start Button, click on it, move it again over Shut Down, click, then move it over the necessary option and click, then move the cursor over the OK button and once again (you guessed it) click.This whole process can be shortened by creating shortcuts on the Desktop which will shut down Windows at the click of a button. Start by creating a new shortcut( right click and select New> Shortcut). Then in the command line box, type (without the quotes.)

'C:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindowsexec'

This Shortcut on clicking will restart Windows immediately without any Warning. To create a Shortcut to Restarting Windows, type the following in the Command Line box:

'c:\windows\rundll.exe user.exe,exitwindows'

This Shortcut on clicking will shut down Windows immediately without any Warning.

Ban Shutdowns : A trick to Play on Lamers

This is a neat trick you can play on that lamer that has a huge ego, in this section I teach you, how to disable the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. This trick involves editing the registry, so please make backups. Launch regedit.exe and go to :

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

In the right pane look for the NoClose Key. If it is not already there then create it by right clicking in the right pane and selecting New > String Value.(Name it NoCloseKey ) Now once you see the NoCloseKey in the right pane, right click on it and select Modify. Then Type 1 in the Value Data Box.

Doing the above on a Win98 system disables the Shut Down option in the Shut Down Dialog Box. But on a Win95 machine if the value of NoCloseKey is set to 1 then click on the Start > Shut Down button displays the following error message:

This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer. Please contact your system administrator.

You can enable the shut down option by changing the value of NoCloseKey to 0 or simply deleting the particular entry i.e. deleting NoCloseKey.

Instead of performing the above difficult to remember process, simply save the following with an extension of .reg and add it's contents to the registry by double clicking on it.

REGEDIT4

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

"NoClose"="1"

Disabling Display of Drives in My Computer

This is yet another trick you can play on your geek friend. To disable the display of local or networked drives when you click My Computer go to :

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

Now in the right pane create a new DWORD item and name it NoDrives. Now modify it's value and set it to 3FFFFFF (Hexadecimal) Now press F5 to refresh. When you click on My Computer, no drives will be shown. To enable display of drives in My Computer, simply delete this DWORD item. It's .reg file is as follows:

REGEDIT4

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

"NoDrives"=dword:03ffffff

Take Over the Screen Saver

To activate and deactivate the screen saver whenever you want, goto the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ScreenSavers

Now add a new string value and name it Mouse Corners. Edit this new value to -Y-N. Press F5 to refresh the registry. Voila! Now you can activate your screensaver by simply placing the mouse cursor at the top right corner of the screen and if you take the mouse to the bottom left corner of the screen, the screensaver will deactivate.

Pop a banner each time Windows Boots

To pop a banner which can contain any message you want to display just before a user is going to log on, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WinLogon

Now create a new string Value in the right pane named LegalNoticeCaption and enter the value that you want to see in the Menu Bar. Now create yet another new string value and name it: LegalNoticeText. Modify it and insert the message you want to display each time Windows boots. This can be effectively used to display the company's private policy each time the user logs on to his NT box. It's .reg file would be:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

"LegalNoticeCaption"="Caption here."

Delete the Tips of the Day to save 5KB

Windows 95 had these tips of the day which appeared on a system running a newly installed Windows OS. These tips of the day are stored in the Windows Registry and consume 5K of space. For those of you who are really concerned about how much free space your hard disk has, I have the perfect trick.

To save 5K go to the following key in Regedit:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Tips

Now simply delete these tricks by selecting and pressing the DEL key.

Change the Default Locations

To change the default drive or path where Windows will look for it's installation files, go to the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath

Now you can edit as you wish.

Secure your Desktop Icons and Settings

You can save your desktop settings and secure it from your nerdy friend by playing with the registry. Simply launch the Registry Editor go to:

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

In the right pane create a new DWORD Value named NoSaveSettings and modify it's value to 1. Refresh and restart for the settings to get saved.

CLSID Folders Explained

Don't you just hate those stubborn stupid icons that refuse to leave the desktop, like the Network Neighborhood icon. I am sure you want to know how you can delete them. You may say, that is really simple, simply right click on the concerned icon and select Delete. Well not exactly, you see when you right click on these special folders( see entire list below)neither the rename nor the delete option does not appear. To delete these folders, there are two methods, the first one is using the System Policy Editor(Poledit in the Windows installation CD)and the second is using the Registry.

Before we go on, you need to understand what CLSID values are. These folders, like the Control Panel, Inbox, The Microsoft Network, Dial Up Networking etc are system folders. Each system folder has a unique CLSID key or the Class ID which is a 16-byte value which identifies an individual object that points to a corresponding key in the registry.

To delete these system Folders from the desktop simply go to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Desktop\Namespace{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

To delete an icon simply delete the 16 byte CLSID value within "NameSpace". The following are the CLSID values of the most commonly used icons:

My Briefcase:{85BBD920-42AO-1069-A2E4-08002B30309D}

Desktop: {00021400-0000-0000-C000-0000000000046}

Control Panel:{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

Dial-Up-Networking:{992CFFA0-F557-101A-88EC-00DD01CCC48}

Fonts: {BD84B380-8CA2-1069-AB1D-08000948534}

Inbox :{00020D76-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

My Computer :{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}

Network Neighborhood:{208D2C60-3AEA-1069-A2D7-O8002B30309D}

Printers :{2227A280-3AEA-1069-A2DE-O8002B30309D}

Recycle Bin :{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

The Microsoft Network:{00028B00-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}

History: {FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}

Winzip :{E0D79300-84BE-11CE-9641-444553540000}

For example, to delete the Recycle Bin, first note down it's CLSID value, which is: 645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E. Now go to the Namespace key in the registry and delete the corresponding key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Similarly to delete the History folder, delete the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Desktop\NameSpace\{FBF23B42-E3F0-101B-8488-00AA003E56F8}

Sometimes, you may need to play a trick on your brother or friend, well this one teaches you how to hide all icons from the Desktop. Go to the following registry key:

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

In the right pane create a new DWORD value by the name: NoDesktop and set its value to: 1. Reboot and you will find no icons on the desktop.

Till now you simply learnt how to delete the special system folders by deleting a registry key, but the hack would have been better if there was a way of adding the DELETE and RENAME option to the right click context menus of these special folders. You can actually change the right click context menu of any system folder and add any of the following options: RENAME, DELETE, CUT, COPY, PASTE and lots more.

This hack too requires you to know the CLSID value of the system folder whose menu you want to customize. In this section, I have taken up Recycle Bin as the folder whose context menu I am going to edit.

Firstly launch the registry editor and open the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\ShellFolder.

In Case you want to edit some other folder like say the FONTS folder, then you will open the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{CLSID VALUE HERE}\ShellFolder.

In the right pane there will be a DWORD value names attributes. Now consider the following options:

To add the Rename option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to
50 01 00 20

To add the Delete option to the menu, change the value of Attributes to
60 01 00 20

3. To add both the Rename & Delete options to the menu, change the value of Attributes to 70,01,00,20

4. Add Copy to the menu, change Attributes to 41 01 00 20

5. Add Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 42 01 00 20

6. Add Copy & Cut to the menu, change Attributes to 43 01 00 20

7. Add Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 44 01 00 20

8. Add Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 45 01 00 20

9. Add Cut & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 46 01 00 20

10.Add all Cut, Copy & Paste to the menu, change Attributes to 47 01 00 20

We want to add only the Rename option to the right click context menu of the Recycle Bin, so change the value of attributes to: 50 01 00 20. Press F5 to refresh and then after rebooting you will find that when you right click on the Recycle Bin a RENAME option pops up too.

To reset the default Windows options change the value of Attributes back to

40 01 00 20

The Registry File which one can create for the above process would be something like the below:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}\Shell-Folder]

"Attributes"=hex:50,01,00,20

To access say the Modem Properties in the Control Panel Folder, the normal procedure is: Click on Start, Click on Settings> Control Panel and then wait for the Control Panel window to pop up and then ultimately click on the Modems icon.

Wouldn't it be lovely if you could shorten the process to: Click on Start> Control Panel>Modems. Yes you can add the Control Panel and also all other Special System Folders directly to the first level Start Menu. Firstly collect the CLSID value of the folder you want to add to the start menu. I want to add Control Panel hence the CLSID value is: 21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D

Now right click on the Start Button and select Open. Now create a new folder and name it: Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}

NOTE: Do not forget the period after the 'l' in Panel. Similarly all system folders can be added to the Start Menu.(accept My Briefcase, I think)

Deleting System Options from the Start menu

You can actually remove the Find and Run options from the start menu by performing a simple registry hack. Again like always Launch the registry editor and scroll down to the below key:

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

Right-click on the right pane and select New, DWORD Value. Name it NoFind.(To remove the RUN option name it NoRun). Double-click the newly create DWORD to edit it's value and enter 1 as its value. This will disable the FIND option of the Start Menu and will also disable the default Shortcut key(F3 for Find.)

To restore the Run or find command modify the value of the DWORD to 0 or simply Delete the DWORD value.

Fed Up of the boring Old Yellow Folder Icons?[Drive Icons Included]

NOTE: This trick hasn't been tried on Win98.

You can easily change the boring yellow folder icons to your own personalized icons. Simply create a text file and copy the following lines into it:

[.ShellClassInfo]

ICONFILE=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this text file by the name, desktop.ini in the folder, whose icon you want to change. Now to prevent this file from getting deleted change it's attributes to Hidden and Read Only by using the ATTRIB command.

To change the icon of a drive, create a text file containing the following lines:

[Autorun]

ICON=Drive:\Path\Icon_name.extension

Save this file in the root of the drive whose icon you want to change and name it autorun.inf For Example, if you want to change the icon of a floppy, SAVE THE icon in a:\icon_name.ico One can also create a kewl icon for the Hard Disk and create a text file [autorun.inf] and store it in "c:\".

Securing NT

By default, NT 4.0 displays the last person who logged onto the system. This can be considered to be a security threat, especially in the case of those who choose their password to be same as their Username. To disable this bug which actually is a feature, go to the following key in the registry editor:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Click and select the ReportBookOK item and create a new string value called DontDisplayLastUserName. Modify it and set it's value to 1.

As a system administrator, you can ensure that the passwords chosen by the users are not too lame or too easy to guess. NT has this lovely utility called the User Manager which allows the administrator to set the age limit of the password which forces the users to change the password after a certain number of days. You can also set the minimum length of passwords and prevent users to use passwords which already have been used earlier and also enable account lockouts which will deactivate an account after a specified number of failed login attempts.

When you log on to Win NT, you should disable Password Caching, this ensures Single NT Domain login and also prevents secondary Windows Logon screen.

Simply copy the following lines to a plain text ASCII editor like: Notepad and save it with an extension, .reg

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000001

----------------DISABLE.reg-----------------

To Enable Password Caching use the following .reg file:

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Network]

"DisablePwdCaching"=dword:00000000

--------------Enable.reg-----------------

Cleaning Recent Docs Menu and the RUN MRU

The Recent Docs menu can be easily disabled by editing the Registry. To do this go to the following Key:

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

Now in the right pane, create a new DWORD value by the name: NoRecentDocsMenu and set it's value to 1. Restart Explorer to save the changes.

You can also clear the RUN MRU history. All the listings are stored in the key:

HKEY_USERS\.Default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RunMRU

You can delete individual listings or the entire listing. To delete History of Find listings go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Doc Find Spec MRU

and delete.

Customizing the Right Click Context Menu of the Start Menu

When you right click on the start menu, only 3 options pop up: Open, Explore, and Find. You can add your own programs to this pop up menu( which comes up when we right click on it.) Open Regedit and go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell

Right click on the shell and create a new Sub Key (You can create a new SubKey by right clicking on the Shell Key and selecting New > Key.). Type in the name of the application you want to add to the start menu. I want to add Notepad to the Start Menu and hence I name this new sub key, Notepad. Now right click on the new registry key that you just created and create yet another new key named Command. Enter the full path of the application, in this case Notepad in the default value of Command in the right

pane. So I Modify the value of the default string value and enter the full pathname of Notepad:

c:\wndows\notepad.exe.

Now press F5 to refresh. Now if you right click on the Start Button you will find a new addition to the Pop Up Menu called Notepad. Clicking on it will launch Notepad.

We can not only add but also remove the existing options in this pop up box.

To delete the Find option, go to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Shell\Find

Delete Find. DO NOT delete Open else you will not be able to open any folders in the Start Menu like Programs, Accessories etc.

BMP Thumbnail As Icon

You can actually change the default BMP icon to a thumbnail version of the actual BMP file. To do this simply go to HKCU\Paint.Picture\Default. In the right pane change the value of default to %1. Please note however that this will slow down the display rate in explorer if there are too many BMP thumbnails to display. You can use other icons too, simply enter the pathname.To restore back to the normal change the vale of default back to: C:\Progra~1\Access~1\MSPAINT.EXE,1.

Customizing The Shortcut Arrow

All shortcuts have a tiny black arrow attached to it's icon to distinguish from normal files. This arrow can sometimes be pretty annoying and as a Hacker should know how to change each and everything, here goes another trick. Launch the Registry Editor and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\explorer\Shell Icons.

Now, on the right pane is a list of icons ( we found out that on some systems, Windows 98 especially, the right pane is blank. Don't worry, just add the value as required ). Find the value 29. If it isn't there, just add it. The value of this string should be C:\Windows\system\shell32.dll, 29 ( which means the 30th icon in shell32.dll - the first one begins with 0 ). Now, we need blank icon to do this. Just create one with white as the whole icon. Go here to learn how to create an icon. Once done just change the value to C:\xxx.ico, 0 where "xxx" is the full path of the icon file and "0" is the icon in it.

Now for some fun. If the blank icon is a bit boring, change it again. You will find that under shell32.dll there is a gear icon, a shared folder ( the hand ) and much more. Experiment for yourself!

Use Perl to Get List or Services Running on your NT box

Use the following Perl Script to get a list of Services running on your NT system

--------------script.pl-----------------

#!c:\per\bin\perl.exe

use Win32::Service;

my ($key, %service, %status, $part);

Win32::Service::GetServices(' ',\%services);

foreach $key (sort keys %services) {

print "Print Name\t: $key, $services{$key}\n";

Win32::Service::GetStatus( ' ',$services{$key};

\%status);

foreach $part (keys %status) {

print "\t$part : $status{$part}\n" if($part eq "CurrentState");

}

}

-------------script.pl-------------------

Internet Explorer Tricks and Tips

Resizable Full Screen Toolbar

The Full Screen option increases the viewable area and makes surfing more enjoyable but sometimes we need the Toolbar but also need to have extra viewing area. Now this hack teaches you how to change the size of the Internet Explorer toolbar. This registry hack is a bit complicated as it involves Binary values, so to make it simple, I have included the following registry file which will enable the resizable option of the Internet Explorer toolbar which was present in the beta version of IE.

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar]

"Theater"=hex:0c,00,00,00,4c,00,00,00,74,00,00,00,18,00,00,00,1b,00,00,00,5c,\

00,00,00,01,00,00,00,e0,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,05,00,00,00,22,00,00,00,26,00,\

00,00,02,00,00,00,21,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,00,04,00,00,00,01,00,00,00,a0,0f,00,\

00,03,00,00,00,08,00,00,00,00,00,00,00

*******************

HACKING TRUTH: Internet Explorer 5 displays the friendly version of HTTP errors like NOT FOUND etc . They are aimed at making things easier for newbies. If you would rather prefer to see the proper error pages for the web server you're using, go to Tools, Internet Options and select the Advanced tab. Then scroll down and uncheck the Show friendly http errors box.

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Making the Internet Explorer & the Explorer Toolbars Fancy

The Internet Explorer toolbar looks pretty simple. Want to make it fancy and kewl? Why not add a background image to it. To do this kewl hack launch the Windows Registry Editor and go to the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Internet Explorer\Toolbar\.

Now in the right pane create a new String Value and name it BackBitmap and modify it's value to the path of the Bitmap you want to dress it up with by rightclicking on it and choosing Modify. When you reboot the Internet Explorer and the Windows Explorer toolbars will have a new look.

Change Internet Explorer's Caption

Don't like the caption of Internet Explorer caption? Want to change it? Open the registry editor and go to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.

In the right pane create a new String Value names Window Title (Note the space between Window and Title). Right click on this newly created String Value and select Modify. Type in the new caption you want to be displayed. Restart for the settings to take place.

Now let's move on to some Outlook Express Tricks.

Colorful Background

Don't like the boring background colors of Outlook Express? To change it launch the Windows Registry Editor and scroll down to the

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Mail And News key.

On the left pane, click on ColorCycle or select Edit and Modify in the menu. Now change the value to 1. Close and restart. Now, launch Outlook Express and whenever you open up a New Message, hold down ctrl-shift and tap the z key to scroll to change the background color. Repeat the keystroke to cycle through the colors.

Internet Explorer 5 Hidden Features

Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 has several hidden features which can be controlled using the Windows Registry. Open your registry and scroll down to the following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Restrictions

Create a new DWORD value named x(See complete list of values of x below) and modify it's value to 1 to enable it and to 0 to disable it.

NoBrowserClose : Disable the option of closing Internet Explorer.

NoBrowserContextMenu : Disable right-click context menu.

NoBrowserOptions : Disable the Tools / Internet Options menu.

NoBrowserSaveAs : Disable the ability to Save As.

NoFavorites : Disable the Favorites.

NoFileNew : Disable the File / New command.

NoFileOpen : Disable the File / Open command.

NoFindFiles : Disable the Find Files command.

NoSelectDownloadDir : Disable the option of selecting a download directory.

NoTheaterMode : Disable the Full Screen view option.

Hacking Secrets

Almost all system administrators make certain changes and make the system restricted. System Administrators can hide the RUN option, the FIND command, the entire Control Panel, drives in My Computer like D: A: etc. They can even restrict activities of a hacker my disabling or hiding, even the tiniest options or tools.

Most commonly these restrictions are imposed locally and are controlled by the Windows Registry. But sometimes the smart system administrators control the activities of the hacker by imposing restrictions remotely through the main server.

Poledit or Policy Editor is a small kewl tool which is being commonly used by system administrators to alter the settings of a system. This utility is not installed by default by Windows. You need to install in manually from the Windows 98 Installation Kit from the Resource Kit folder. user.dat file that we saw earlier.

The Policy Editor tool imposes restrictions on the user's system by editing the user.dat file which in turn means that it edits the Windows Registry to change the settings. It can be used to control or restrict access to each and every folder and option you could ever think of. It has the power to even restrict access to individual folders, files, the Control Panel, MS DOS, the drives available etc. Sometimes this software does make life really hard for a Hacker. So how can we remove the restrictions imposed by the Policy Editor? Well read ahead to learn more.

You see the Policy Editor is not the only way to restrict a user's activities. As we already know that the Policy Editor edits the Windows Registry(user.dat) file to impose such restrictions. So this in turn would mean that we can directly make changes to the Windows Registry using a .reg file or directly to remove or add restrictions.

Launch Regedit and go to the following Registry Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies

Under this key, there will definitely be a key named explorer. Now under this explorer key we can create new DWORD values and modify it's value to 1 in order to impose the restriction. If you want to remove the Restriction, then you can simply delete the respective DWORD values or instead change their values to 0. The following is a list of DWORD values that can be created under the Explorer Key-:

NoDeletePrinter: Disables Deletion of already installed Printers

NoAddPrinter: Disables Addition of new Printers

NoRun : Disables or hides the Run Command

NoSetFolders: Removes Folders from the Settings option on Start Menu (Control Panel, Printers, Taskbar)

NoSetTaskbar: Removes Taskbar system folder from the Settings option on Start Menu

NoFind: Removes the Find Tool (Start >Find)

NoDrives: Hides and does not display any Drives in My Computer

NoNetHood: Hides or removes the Network Neighborhood icon from the desktop

NoDesktop: Hides all items including, file, folders and system folders from the Desktop

NoClose: Disables Shutdown and prevents the user from normally shutting down Windows.

NoSaveSettings: Means to say, 'Don't save settings on exit'

DisableRegistryTools: Disable Registry Editing Tools (If you disable this option, the Windows Registry Editor(regedit.exe) too

will not work.)

NoRecentDocsHistory: Removes Recent Document system folder from the Start Menu (IE 4 and above)

ClearRecentDocsOnExit: Clears the Recent Documents system folder on Exit.

Nolnternetlcon: Removes the Internet (system folder) icon from the Desktop

Under the same key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/CurrentVersion/Policies you can create new subkeys other than the already existing Explorer key. Now create a new key and name it System. Under this new key, system we can create the following new DWORD values(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

NODispCPL: Hides Control Panel

NoDispBackgroundPage: Hides Background page.

NoDispScrsavPage: Hides Screen Saver Page

NoDispAppearancePage: Hides Appearance Page

NoDispSettingsPage: Hides Settings Page

NoSecCPL: Disables Password Control Panel

NoPwdPage: Hides Password Change Page

NoAdminPaqe: Hides Remote Administration Page

NoProfilePage: Hides User Profiles Page

NoDevMgrPage: Hides Device Manager Page

NoConfigPage: Hides Hardware Profiles Page

NoFileSysPage: Hides File System Button

NoVirtMemPage: Hides Virtual Memory Button

Similarly, if we create a new subkey named Network, we can add the following DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides Network Security Page

NoNelSetup: Hides or disables the Network option in the Control Panel

NoNetSetupIDPage: Hides the Identification Page

NoNetSetupSecurityPage: Hides the Access Control Page

NoFileSharingControl: Disables File Sharing Controls

NoPrintSharing: Disables Print Sharing Controls

Similarly, if we create a new subkey named WinOldApp, we can add the following DWORD values under it(1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option):

Disabled: Disable MS-DOS Prompt

NoRealMode: Disable Single-Mode MS-DOS.

So you see if you have access to the Windows Registry, then you can easily create new DWORD values and set heir value to 1 for enabling the particular option and 0 for disabling the particular option. But Sometimes, access to the Windows Registry is blocked. So what do you do? Go to the Windows Directory and delete either user.dat or system.dat (These 2 files constitute the Windows Registry.) and reboot. As soon as Windows logs in, it will display a Warning Message informing you about an error in the Windows Registry. Simply ignore this Warning Message and Press CTRL+DEL+ALT to get out of this warning message.(Do not press OK) You will find that all restrictions have been removed.

The most kind of restriction found quite commonly is the Specific Folder Restriction, in which users are not allowed access to specific folders, the most common being the Windows folder, or sometimes even access to My Computer is blocked. In effect, you simply cannot seem to access the important kewl files which are needed by you to do remove restrictions. What do you? Well use the RUN command. (START >RUN). But unfortunately a system administrator who is intelligent enough to block access to specific folder, would definitely have blocked access to the RUN command. Again we are stuck.

Windows is supposed to be the most User Friendly Operating System on earth. (At least Microsoft Says so.)

It gives the User an option to do the same thing in various ways. You see the RUN command is only the most convenient option of launching applications, but not the only way. In Windows you can create shortcuts to almost anything from a file, folder to a Web URL. So say your system administrator has blocked access to the c:\windows\system folder and you need to access it. What do you do? Simply create a Shortcut to it. To do this right click anywhere on the desktop and select New > Shortcut. A new window titled Create Shortcut pops up. Type in the path of the restricted folder you wish to access, in this case c:\windows\system. Click Next, Enter the friendly name of the Shortcut and then click Finish. Now you can access the restricted folder by simply double clicking on the shortcut icon. Well that shows how protected and secure *ahem Windows *ahem is.

****************

HACKING TRUTH: Sometimes when you try to delete a file or a folder, Windows displays an error message saying that the file is protected. This simply means that the file is write protected, or in other words the R option is +. Get it? Anyway, you can stop Windows from displaying this error message and straightaway delete this file by changing its attributes to Non Read Only. This can be done by Right Clicking on the file, selecting Properties and then

unselecting the Read Only Option.

***************

There is yet another way of accessing restricted folders. Use see, DOS has a lovely command known as START. Its general syntax is:

START application_path

It does do what it seems to do, start applications. So in you have access to DOS then you can type in the START command to get access to the restricted folder. Now mostly access to DOS too would be blocked. So again you can use the shortcut trick to launch, c:\command.com or c:\windows\command.com. (Command.com is the file which launches MS DOS).

Accessing Restricted Drives.

The problem with most system administrators is that they think that the users or Hackers too are stupid. Almost all system administrators use the Registry Trick (Explained Earlier) to hide all drives in My Computer. So in order to unhide or display all drives, simply delete that particular key.(Refer to beginning of Untold Secrets Section.)

Some systems have the floppy disk disabled through the BIOS. On those systems if the BIOS is protected, you may need to crack the BIOS password. (For that Refer to the Windows Hacking Chapter). Sometimes making drives readable (Removing R +) and then creating Shortcuts to them also helps us to get access to them.

Further Changing your Operating System's Looks by editing .htt files

If you have installed Windows Desktop Update and have the view as Web Page option enabled, you can customise the way the folder looks by selecting View > Customise this folder. Here you can change the background and other things about that particular folder. Well that is pretty lame, right? We hackers already know things as lame as that. Read on for some kewl stuff.

Well, you could also change the default that is stored in a Hidden HTML Template file (I think so..) which is nothing but a HTML document with a .htt extension. This .htt file is found at: %systemroot%\web\folder.htt.

The %systemroot% stands for the drive in which Windows is Installed, which is normally C:

You can edit these .htt files almost just like you edit normal .HTM or .HTML files. Simply open them in an ASCII editor like Notepad. The following is a list of .htt files on your system which control various folders and which can be edited to customise the way various folders look.

controlp.htt Control Panel

printers.htt Printers

mycomp.htt My Computer

safemode.htt Safe Mode

All these files are found in the web folder in %systemfolder%. The folder.htt file has a line:

'Here's a good place to add a few lines of your own"

which is the place where you can add your own A HREF links. These links would then appear in the folder whose folder.htt file you edited. All this might sound really easy and simple, but you see these .htt files do not contain normal HTML code, instead they contain a mixture of HTML and web bots. Hence they can be difficult for newbies to understand.

Diferrent File's Extention Listing

2009-02-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

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.

Winxp Tips And Tricks, Winsock 2 repair

2009-01-27T06:59:00.000-08:00

Repairing Damaged Winsock2

The symptoms when Winsock2 is damaged show when you try to release and renew the IP address using IPCONFIG...

And you get the following error message:

An error occurred while renewing interface 'Internet': An operation was attempted on something that is not a socket.

Also Internet Explorer may give the following error message:
The page cannot be displayed Additionally, you may have no IP address or no Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, and you may be receiving IP packets but not sending them.

There are two easy ways to determine if Winsock2 is damaged:

From the XP source files, go to the Support / Tools directory

Winsock Test Method 1
Run netdiag /test:winsock

The end should say Winsock test ..... passed

Winsock Test Method 2

Run Msinfo32
Click on the + by Components
Click on the by Network
Click on Protocol
There should be 10 sections if the Winsock2 key is ok
MSAFD Tcpip [TCP/IP]
MSAFD Tcpip [UDP/IP]
RSVP UDP Service Provider
RSVP TCP Service Provider
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...
MSAFD NetBIOS [\Device\NetBT_Tcpip...

If the names are anything different from those in this list, then likely Winsock2 is corrupted and needs to be repaired.
If you have any 3rd party software installed, the name MSAFD may be changed.
There should be no fewer than 10 sections.

To repair Winsock2

Run Regedit
Delete the following two registry keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Winsock2

Restart the computer
Go to Network Connections
Right click and select Properties
Click on the Install button
Select Protocol
Click on the Add button
Click on the Have Disk button
Browse to the \Windows\inf directory
Click on the Open button
Click on the OK button
Highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Click on the OK button
Reboot

Steps to Clean Install XP

2009-01-17T16:49:00.000-08:00

If the above instructions for configuring your system to boot from CD
or you have acquired the necessary boot floppy/floppies; you can now
boot the computer and follow the on screen prompts. Have your Product Key
available, typical install is around 30 minutes. If setup seems to hang,
wait at least 10 minutes + before restarting system. You should experience
momentary screen blackouts.

1. Power on the computer. Press the Pause/Break key as soon as you see
text on the screen. [If you currently are running in an OS of any flavor,
insert XP CD and restart computer. Skip to #3 if system is configured
to boot from CD.]

2. Insert XP CD into CD drive. Press ENTER to resume booting from the XP CD.
(BIOS must support booting from CD and boot order must be set so CD
boots before hard drive. If computer does not support booting from CD
go to 2a for floppy install).

2a. Floppy install: Boot from Win98/Me/Special XP install floppy
disk with smartdrv.exe added to the boot disk; or the Win XP set
of 6 floppy disks.

3. Look for message "booting from CD" usually located at the bottom of
the screen. If you have a factory splash screen, press ESC to unload
it.

3a. Floppy install: From the A Prompt; A:\type: smartdrv.exe. then
press ENTER. If you are using the XP boot floppy setup disks skip
to step #5.

4. Press any Key when you see the prompt to "Press Any Key"

4a. Floppy install: CD to the location of the CD-ROM drive with the
XP setup files; CD to the i386 folder where you will type: winnt.exe
to start setup.

5. Setup will start copying files, if you need to install any third
- party or RAID drivers press F6 at this time. the copying of files
can take awhile.

6. Next you will get the option to repair or enter setup, choose to
enter setup. Press ENTER. To see images full size, place mouse cursor
over image and click/double click or press the left button and open.

7. Press F8 if you agree to the license.

8. Setup will scan for previous Windows installations

9. If you are using the upgrade version of XP on a computer without
any version of Windows currently installed, this is where you will
replace the XP CD with your qualifying CD, XP setup will scan the
qualifying CD and instruct you to replace it with the XP CD to continue
XP setup; otherwise, you will not see this screen. Clean install
qualifying media can be any of the following Win NT3.51, 4.0, 2000,
Win 95, 98, Me. 10. Choose the location to install.

10a If this is a clean hard drive, you can choose to create a
partition in the un-partitioned space. At this point, you can allow
Setup to use all the space or set a size for the partition.

10b If the hard drive or partition has a previous installation of
XP you want to remove, choose to delete the partition by pressing
"D". You will then be prompted to create a new partition in the
empty space. This will remove all data from the delete space.

10c If you intend to use multiple partitions, or dual boot, this is
where you specify the size of the boot partition and or setup
location for XP. If you are planning to dual boot XP, I would
create a small 100 meg DOS partition for the first primary partition,
then an 8 to 10 gig partition for XP. You can partition and format
the remaining space after XP is setup from Disk Manager. If you do not
intend to dual boot, you can either use all the un-partitioned space,
or create an 8 to 10 gig partition for XP and leave the rest free to
partition later.

Note: If a fat32 partition larger than 32 gigabyte is desired, the
hard drive or partition will need to be created before running XP
setup. XP will not create a fat 32 partition larger than 32 gig, but
will support one previously created.

11. Choose the file system from this screen. If dual booting and you
created the small 100 meg partition, make it a fat partition. NTFS is
configured at the optimal file size during the initial setup. See this
link for more on NTFS

12. If you have more that one partition or hard drive on your system,
make sure you are formatting the correct partition/drive.

13. Select F to continue.

14. Setup will show a progress box and reboot when copying files is
complete.

15. When you see the "Press any Key to Reboot" do not Press any Key.
If CD boots anyway, remove CD and reboot.

16. From this point, you will follow the on screen prompts.

17. If you live outside the US, you will probably need to modify the
default settings.

18. Personalize your XP Enter your Name and Organization.

19. Enter the Product Key. The Key is located on the back of the CD folder
in the Retail versions, and on a holographic label with the OEM
versions purchased with a piece of hardware. Write this key down and
secure it in a safe place in case the original is misplaced destroyed
through natural causes or stupidity. 8-)

20. Choose a name for the computer, this should be a unique name for
the computer, especially if it is to be connected to a network. In Pro,
you are given the option of creating a password or leaving it blank.

21. Set your Time Zone and Time and Date.

22. Setup will scan for network.

23. If detected you will have the choice to choose a typical
configuration or custom. Choose typical if you are unsure.

24. For home you will choose your workgroup, if a network is already
established and you intend to connect to it, use the existing
workgroup name, otherwise, I suggest using the default.

25. For Pro, the same goes for Pro as suggested for Home, but you will
have the choice to join a Domain, if you do not have a Domain or do
not know leave blank.

26. Setup will continue and reboot when completed ignore the "Press
Any Key".

27. The loading XP window will now display after reboot.

28. You will see a change display settings, say yes, and accept the
setting if you can see the screen after accepting.

29. You will see a welcome screen, press next and unfortunately you
have to wait for the dialog to finish.

30. Set up you internet or network connection.

31. This is the Activate, Register screen. You must activate within
30 days of installing XP, but you do not ever have to register,
Registration is completely optional and if you do not register, no
personal information will be transmitted during activation. If you
register, then activation will transmit that information along with
the activation. The first Activation is usually done over the internet
if the computer is connected to the internet, otherwise, it can be
accomplished by copying the alphanumeric string from the activation
screen and make a phone call to the on screen supplied phone number.
The activation center will then give you a slightly longer number to
input into for activation. I suggest you do not activate immediately
in case you need to make hard ware changes, or install to a different
system within the thirty days, and you will be reminded on boot up
until you do.

Blaster worm warning: Do not immediately activate over the internet
when asked, enable the XP firewall before connecting to the internet.
You can activate after the firewall is enabled.
Control Panel - Network Connections. Right click the connection you
use, Properties, and there is a check box on the Advanced page.

32. Setup users screen. Set at least one user for yourself or the person
that will be using the computer.

33. Thank You

34. Logon to XP and apply Service Pack and Critical updates from Windows
Update before installing any software or hardware.

35. Install your anti-virus software.

36. Install all applications and setup your email.

37. Restore from Files and Settings transfer after reinstalling all
applications.

Windows XP Tweaks

2009-01-16T20:12:00.000-08:00

STARTUP

Windows Prefetcher
******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Session Manager \ Memory Management \ PrefetchParameters]

Under this key there is a setting called EnablePrefetcher, the default setting of which is 3. Increasing this number to 5 gives the prefetcher system more system resources to prefetch application data for faster load times. Depending on the number of boot processes you run on your computer, you may get benefits from settings up to 9. However, I do not have any substantive research data on settings above 5 so I cannot verify the benefits of a higher setting. This setting also may effect the loading times of your most frequently launched applications. This setting will not take effect until after you reboot your system.

Master File Table Zone Reservation
**********************************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ FileSystem]

Under this key there is a setting called NtfsMftZoneReservation, the default setting of which is 1. The range of this value is from 1 to 4. The default setting reserves one-eighth of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 2 reserves one-quarter of the volume for the MFT. A setting of 3 for NtfsMftZoneReservation reserves three-eighths of the volume for the MFT and setting it to 4 reserves half of the volume for the MFT. Most users will never exceed one-quarter of the volume. I recommend a setting of 2 for most users. This allows for a "moderate number of files" commensurate with the number of small files included in most computer games and applications. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimize Boot Files
*******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Dfrg \ BootOptimizeFunction]

Under this key is a text value named Enable. A value of Y for this setting enables the boot files defragmenter. This setting defragments the boot files and may move the boot files to the beginning (fastest) part of the partition, but that last statement is unverified. Reboot after applying this tweak.

Optimizing Startup Programs [msconfig]
**************************************

MSConfig, similar to the application included in Win9x of the same name, allows the user to fine tune the applications that are launched at startup without forcing the user to delve deep into the registry. To disable some of the applications launched, load msconfig.exe from the run command line, and go to the Startup tab. From there, un-ticking the checkbox next to a startup item will stop it from launching. There are a few application that you will never want to disable (ctfmon comes to mind), but for the most part the best settings vary greatly from system to system.

As a good rule of thumb, though, it is unlikely that you will want to disable anything in the Windows directory (unless it's a third-party program that was incorrectly installed into the Windows directory), nor will you want to disable anything directly relating to your system hardware. The only exception to this is when you are dealing with software, which does not give you any added benefits (some OEM dealers load your system up with software you do not need). The nice part of msconfig is that it does not delete any of the settings, it simply disables them, and so you can go back and restart a startup application if you find that you need it. This optimization won't take effect until after a reboot.

Bootvis Application
*******************
The program was designed by Microsoft to enable Windows XP to cold boot in 30 seconds, return from hibernation in 20 seconds, and return from standby in 10 seconds. Bootvis has two extremely useful features. First, it can be used to optimize the boot process on your computer automatically. Second, it can be used to analyze the boot process for specific subsystems that are having difficulty loading. The first process specifically targets the prefetching subsystem, as well as the layout of boot files on the disk. When both of these systems are optimized, it can result in a significant reduction in the time it takes for the computer to boot.

Before attempting to use Bootvis to analyze or optimize the boot performance of your system, make sure that the task scheduler service has been enabled – the program requires the service to run properly. Also, close all open programs as well – using the software requires a reboot.

To use the software to optimize your system startup, first start with a full analysis of a fresh boot. Start Bootvis, go to the Tools menu, and select next boot. Set the Trace Repetition Settings to 2 repetitions, Start at 1, and Reboot automatically. Then set the trace into motion. The system will fully reboot twice, and then reopen bootvis and open the second trace file (should have _2 in the name). Analyze the graphs and make any changes that you think are necessary (this is a great tool for determining which startup programs you want to kill using msconfig). Once you have made your optimizations go to the Trace menu, and select the Optimize System item. This will cause the system to reboot and will then make some changes to the file structure on the hard drive (this includes a defragmentation of boot files and a shifting of their location to the fastest portion of the hard disk, as well as some other optimizations). After this is done, once again run a Trace analysis as above, except change the starting number to 3. Once the system has rebooted both times, compare the charts from the second trace to the charts for the fourth trace to show you the time improvement of the system's boot up.

The standard defragmenter included with Windows XP will not undo the boot optimizations performed by this application.

-----------------------------------
General Performance Tweaks
-----------------------------------

IRQ Priority Tweak
******************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

You will need to create a new DWORD: IRQ#Priority (where # is the number of the IRQ you want to prioritize) and give it a setting of 1. This setting gives the requisite IRQ channel priority over the other IRQs on a software level. This can be extremely important for functions and hardware subsystems that need real-time access to other parts of the system. There are several different subsystems that might benefit from this tweak. Generally, I recommend giving either the System CMOS or the video card priority. The System CMOS generally has an IRQ setting of 8, and giving it priority enhances the I/O performance of the system. Giving priority to the video card can increase frame rates and make AGP more effective.

You can give several IRQs priority, but I am not entirely certain how the system interacts when several IRQs are given priority – it may cause random instabilities in the system, although it is more likely that there's a parsing system built into Windows XP to handle such an occurrence. Either way, I would not recommend it.

QoS tweak
*********
QoS (Quality of Service) is a networking subsystem which is supposed to insure that the network runs properly. The problem with the system is that it eats up 20% of the total bandwidth of any networking service on the computer (including your internet connection). If you are running XP Professional, you can disable the bandwidth quota reserved for the system using the Group Policy Editor [gpedit.msc].

You can run the group policy editor from the Run command line. To find the setting, expand "Local Computer Policy" and go to "Administrative Templates" under "Computer Configuration." Then find the "Network" branch and select "QoS Packet Scheduler." In the right hand box, double click on the "Limit Reservable Bandwidth." From within the Settings tab, enable the setting and then go into the "Bandwidth Limit %" and set it to 0%. The reason for this is that if you disable this setting, the computer defaults to 20%. This is true even when you aren't using QoS.

Free Idle Tasks Tweak
*********************

This tweak will free up processing time from any idle processes and allow it to be used by the foreground application. It is useful particularly if you are running a game or other 3D application. Create a new shortcut to "Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks" and place it on your desktop. Double-click on it anytime you need all of your processing power, before opening the application.

Windows Indexing Services
Windows Indexing Services creates a searchable database that makes system searches for words and files progress much faster – however, it takes an enormous amount of hard drive space as well as a significant amount of extra CPU cycles to maintain the system. Most users will want to disable this service to release the resources for use by the system. To turn off indexing, open My Computer and right click on the drive on which you wish to disable the Indexing Service. Enter the drive's properties and under the general tab, untick the box for "Allow the Indexing Service to index this disk for fast file searching."

Priority Tweak
**************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl]

This setting effectively runs each instance of an application in its own process for significantly faster application performance and greater stability. This is extremely useful for users with stability problems, as it can isolate specific instances of a program so as not to bring down the entire application. And, it is particularly useful for users of Internet Explorer, for if a rogue web page crashes your browser window, it does not bring the other browser windows down with it. It has a similar effect on any software package where multiple instances might be running at once, such as Microsoft Word. The only problem is that this takes up significantly more memory, because such instances of a program cannot share information that is in active memory (many DLLs and such will have to be loaded into memory multiple times). Because of this, it is not recommended for anyone with less than 512 MB of RAM, unless they are running beta software (or have some other reason for needing the added stability).

There are two parts to this tweak. First is to optimize XP's priority control for the processes. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ PriorityControl and set the "Win32PrioritySeparation" DWORD to 38. Next, go into My Computer and under Tools, open the Folder Options menu. Select the View tab and check the "Launch folder windows in separate process" box. This setting actually forces each window into its own memory tread and gives it a separate process priority.

Powertweak application
**********************
xxx.powertweak.com

Powertweak is an application, which acts much like a driver for our chipsets. It optimizes the communication between the chipset and the CPU, and unlocks several "hidden" features of the chipset that can increase the speed of the system. Specifically, it tweaks the internal registers of the chipset and processor that the BIOS does not for better communication performance between subsystems. Supported CPUs and chipsets can see a significant increase in I/O bandwidth, increasing the speed of the entire system. Currently the application supports most popular CPUs and chipsets, although you will need to check the website for your specific processor/chipset combo – the programmer is working on integrating even more chipsets and CPUs into the software.

Offload Network Task Processing onto the Network Card
*****************************************************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Tcpip \ Parameters]

Many newer network cards have the ability of taking some of the network processing load off of the processor and performing it right on the card (much like Hardware T&L on most new video cards). This can significantly lower the CPU processes needed to maintain a network connection, freeing up that processor time for other tasks. This does not work on all cards, and it can cause network connectivity problems on systems where the service is enabled but unsupported, so please check with your NIC manufacturer prior to enabling this tweak. Find the DWORD "DisableTaskOffload" and set the value to 0 (the default value is 1). If the key is not already available, create it.

Force XP to Unload DLLs
***********************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer]
"AlwaysUnloadDLL"=dword:00000001

XP has a bad habit of keeping dynamic link libraries that are no longer in use resident in memory. Not only do the DLLs use up precious memory space, but they also tend to cause stability problems in some systems. To force XP to unload any DLLs in memory when the application that called them is no longer in memory, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer and find the DWORD "AlwaysUnloadDLL". You may need to create this key. Set the value to 1 to force the operating system to unload DLLs.

Give 16-bit apps their own separate processes
*********************************************
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW]
"DefaultSeparateVDM"="Yes"

By default, Windows XP will only open one 16-bit process and cram all 16-bit apps running on the system at a given time into that process. This simulates how MS-DOS based systems viewed systems and is necessary for some older applications that run together and share resources. However, most 16-bit applications work perfectly well by themselves and would benefit from the added performance and stability of their own dedicated resources. To force Windows XP to give each 16-bit application it's own resources, browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ WOW and find the String "DefaultSeparateVDM". If it is not there, you may need to create it. Set the value of this to Yes to give each 16-bit application its own process, and No to have the 16-bit application all run in the same memory space.

Disable User Tracking
*********************
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer]
"NoInstrumentation"=dword:00000001

The user tracking system built into Windows XP is useless to 99% of users (there are very few uses for the information collected other than for a very nosy system admin), and it uses up precious resources to boot, so it makes sense to disable this "feature" of Windows XP. To do so, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer and find the DWORD "NoInstrumentation". You may need to create this key if it is not there. The default setting is 0, but setting it to 1 will disable most of the user tracking features of the system.

Thumbnail Cache
***************
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced]
"DisableThumbnailCache"=dword:00000001

Windows XP has a neat feature for graphic and video files that creates a "thumbnail" of the image or first frame of the video and makes it into an oversized icon for the file. There are two ways that Explorer can do this, it can create them fresh each time you access the folder or it can load them from a thumbnail cache. The thumbnail caches on systems with a large number of image and video files can become staggeringly large. To disable the Thumbnail Cache, browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Explorer \ Advanced and find the DWORD "DisableThumbnailCache". You may need to create this key. A setting of 1 is recommended for systems where the number of graphic and video files is large, and a setting of 0 is recommended for systems not concerned about hard drive space, as loading the files from the cache is significantly quicker than creating them from scratch each time a folder is accessed.

Repair Windows XP

2009-01-14T07:00:00.000-08:00

1. Boot the computer using the XP CD. You may need to change the
boot order in the system BIOS. Check your system documentation
for steps to access the BIOS and change the boot order.

2. When you see the "Welcome To Setup" screen, you will see the
options below This portion of the Setup program prepares Microsoft
Windows XP to run on your computer:

To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER.

To repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R.

To quit Setup without installing Windows XP, press F3.

3. Press Enter to start the Windows Setup.

do not choose "To repair a Windows XP installation using the
Recovery Console, press R", (you do not want to load Recovery
Console). I repeat, do not choose "To repair a Windows XP
installation using the Recovery Console, press R".

4. Accept the License Agreement and Windows will search for existing
Windows installations.

5. Select the XP installation you want to repair from the list and
press R to start the repair. If Repair is not one of the options,
read this Warning!!

6. Setup will copy the necessary files to the hard drive and reboot.
Do not press any key to boot from CD when the message appears.
Setup will continue as if it were doing a clean install, but your
applications and settings will remain intact.

Blaster worm warning: Do not immediately activate over the internet
when asked, enable the XP firewall
[ http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=283673 ]
before connecting to the internet. You can activate after the
firewall is enabled. Control Panel - Network Connections. Right click
the connection you use, Properties, and there is a check box on the
Advanced [ http://michaelstevenstech.com/xpfirewall1.jpg ] page.

7. Reapply updates or service packs applied since initial Windows XP
installation. Please note that a Repair Install from the Original
install XP CD will remove SP1/SP2 and service packs will need to be
reapplied.
Service Pack 2
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-
4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en
An option I highly recommend is creating a Slipstreamed XP CD with SP2.
Slipstreaming Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2)
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

______________________________________________________________________

Warning!!
If the option to Repair Install is not available and you continue
with the install;you will delete your Windows folder and Documents
and Settings folder. All applications that place keys in the registry
will need to be re-installed. You should exit setup if the repair
option is not available and consider other options.

Try the link below if the repair option is not available.
Windows XP Crashed?
http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm
Here's Help.
A salvage mission into the depths of Windows XP, explained by a
non-geek

by Charlie White
http://www.digitalwebcast.com/2002/03_mar/tutorials/cw_boot_toot.htm

Related links
You May Lose Data or Program Settings After Reinstalling, Repairing,
or Upgrading Windows XP (Q312369)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q312369

System Restore "Restore Points" Are Missing or Deleted (Q301224)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q301224

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
(Q315341)
http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q315341

Warning!! If the Repair Option is not Available
What should I do? Most important do not ignore the information below!

If the option to Repair Install is NOT available and you continue
with the install; you will delete your Windows folder, Documents and
Settings folders. All Applications that place keys in the registry
will need to be re-installed.

You should exit setup if the repair option is not available and
consider other options. I have found if the Repair option is not
available, XP is usually not repairable and will require a Clean
install.http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html
If you still have the ability to access the Windows XP installation,
backup all important files not restorable from other sources before
attempting any recovery console trouble shooting attempts.

Possible Fix by reconfiguring boot.ini using Recovery Console.
1.Boot with XP CD or 6 floppy boot disk set.
2. Press R to load the Recovery Console.
3. Type bootcfg.
4. This should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the
XP OS install.
5. Try the repair install.

One more suggestion from MVP Alex Nichol

"Reboot, this time taking the immediate R option, and if the CD
letter is say K: give these commands

COPY K:\i386\ntldr C:\
COPY K:\i386\ntdetect.com C:\

(two other files needed - just in case)

1. Type: ATTRIB -H -R -S C:\boot.ini DEL C:\boot.ini

2. Type: BootCfg /Rebuild

which will get rid of any damaged boot.ini, search the disk for
systems and make a new one. This might even result in a damaged
windows reappearing; but gives another chance of getting at the
repair"

Disable The Send Error Report, to Microsoft

2009-01-14T06:27:00.001-08:00

To disable the stupid feature in WinXP which tries to send a report to microsoft every time a program crashes you will have to do this:

Open Control Panel
Click on Preformance and Maintenance.
Click on System.
Then click on the Advanced tab
Click on the error reporting button on the bottom of the windows.
Select Disable error reporting.
Click OK
Click OK

Disable The Send Error Report, to Microsoft

2009-01-14T06:27:00.000-08:00

Evolution Of Computer Viruses History Of Viruses

2009-01-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

part 1

Like any other field in computer science, viruses have evolved -a great deal indeed- over the years. In the series of press releases which start today, we will look at the origins and evolution of malicious code since it first appeared up to the present.

Going back to the origin of viruses, it was in 1949 that Mathematician John Von Neumann described self-replicating programs which could resemble computer viruses as they are known today. However, it was not until the 60s that we find the predecessor of current viruses. In that decade, a group of programmers developed a game called Core Wars, which could reproduce every time it was run, and even saturate the memory of other players’ computers. The creators of this peculiar game also created the first antivirus, an application named Reeper, which could destroy copies created by Core Wars.

However, it was only in 1983 that one of these programmers announced the existence of Core Wars, which was described the following year in a prestigious scientific magazine: this was actually the starting point of what we call computer viruses today.

At that time, a still young MS-DOS was starting to become the preeminent operating system worldwide. This was a system with great prospects, but still many deficiencies as well, which arose from software developments and the lack of many hardware elements known today. Even like this, this new operating system became the target of a virus in 1986: Brain, a malicious code created in Pakistan which infected boot sectors of disks so that their contents could not be accessed. That year also saw the birth of the first Trojan: an application called PC-Write.

Shortly after, virus writers realized that infecting files could be even more harmful to systems. In 1987, a virus called Suriv-02 appeared, which infected COM files and opened the door to the infamous viruses Jerusalem or Viernes 13. However, the worst was still to come: 1988 set the date when the “Morris worm” appeared, infecting 6,000 computers.

From that date up to 1995 the types of malicious codes that are known today started being developed: the first macro viruses appeared, polymorphic viruses … Some of these even triggered epidemics, such as MichaelAngelo. However, there was an event that changed the virus scenario worldwide: the massive use of the Internet and e-mail. Little by little, viruses started adapting to this new situation until the appearance, in 1999, of Melissa, the first malicious code to cause a worldwide epidemic, opening a new era for computer viruses.

part 2

This second installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how malicious code used to spread before use of the Internet and e-mail became as commonplace as it is today, and the main objectives of the creators of those earlier viruses.
Until the worldwide web and e-mail were adopted as a standard means of communication the world over, the main mediums through which viruses spread were floppy disks, removable drives, CDs, etc., containing files that were already infected or with the virus code in an executable boot sector.

When a virus entered a system it could go memory resident, infecting other files as they were opened, or it could start to reproduce immediately, also infecting other files on the system. The virus code could also be triggered by a certain event, for example when the system clock reached a certain date or time. In this case, the virus creator would calculate the time necessary for the virus to spread and then set a date –often with some particular significance- for the virus to activate. In this way, the virus would have an incubation period during which it didn’t visibly affect computers, but just spread from one system to another waiting for ‘D-day’ to launch its payload. This incubation period would be vital to the virus successfully infecting as many computers as possible.

One classic example of a destructive virus that lay low before releasing its payload was CIH, also known as Chernobyl. The most damaging version of this malicious code activated on April 26, when it would try to overwrite the flash-BIOS, the memory which includes the code needed to control PC devices. This virus, which first appeared in June 1998, had a serious impact for over two years and still continues to infect computers today.

Because of the way in which they propagate, these viruses spread very slowly, especially in comparison to the speed of today’s malicious code. Towards the end of the Eighties, for example, the Friday 13th (or Jerusalem) virus needed a long time to actually spread and continued to infect computers for some years. In contrast, experts reckon that in January 2003, SQLSlammer took just ten minutes to cause global communication problems across the Internet.

Notoriety versus stealth

For the most part, in the past, the activation of a malicious code triggered a series of on screen messages or images, or caused sounds to be emitted to catch the user’s attention. Such was the case with the Ping Pong virus, which displayed a ball bouncing from one side of the screen to another. This kind of elaborate display was used by the creator of the virus to gain as much notoriety as possible. Nowadays however, the opposite is the norm, with virus authors trying to make malicious code as discreet as possible, infecting users’ systems without them noticing that anything is amiss.

pat 3

This third installment of ‘The evolution of viruses’ will look at how the Internet and e-mail changed the propagation techniques used by computer viruses.

Internet and e-mail revolutionized communications. However, as expected, virus creators didn’t take long to realize that along with this new means of communication, an excellent way of spreading their creations far and wide had also dawned. Therefore, they quickly changed their aim from infecting a few computers while drawing as much attention to themselves as possible, to damaging as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible. This change in strategy resulted in the first global virus epidemic, which was caused by the Melissa worm.

With the appearance of Melissa, the economic impact of a virus started to become an issue. As a result, users -above all companies- started to become seriously concerned about the consequences of viruses on the security of their computers. This is how users discovered antivirus programs, which started to be installed widely. However, this also brought about a new challenge for virus writers, how to slip past this protection and how to persuade users to run infected files.

The answer to which of these virus strategies was the most effective came in the form of a new worm: Love Letter, which used a simple but effective ruse that could be considered an early type of social engineering. This strategy involves inserting false messages that trick users into thinking that the message includes anything, except a virus. This worm’s bait was simple; it led users to believe that they had received a love letter.

This technique is still the most widely used. However, it is closely followed by another tactic that has been the center of attention lately: exploiting vulnerabilities in commonly used software. This strategy offers a range of possibilities depending on the security hole exploited. The first malicious code to use this method –and quite successfully- were the BubbleBoy and Kakworm worms. These worms exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer by inserting HTML code in the body of the e-mail message, which allowed them to run automatically, without needing the user to do a thing.

Vulnerabilities allow many different types of actions to be carried out. For example, they allow viruses to be dropped on computers directly from the Internet -such as the Blaster worm-. In fact, the effects of the virus depend on the vulnerability that the virus author tries to exploit.

part 4

In the early days of computers, there were relatively few PCs likely to contain “sensitive” information, such as credit card numbers or other financial data, and these were generally limited to large companies that had already incorporated computers into working processes.

In any event, information stored in computers was not likely to be compromised, unless the computer was connected to a network through which the information could be transmitted. Of course, there were exceptions to this and there were cases in which hackers perpetrated frauds using data stored in IT systems. However, this was achieved through typical hacking activities, with no viruses involved.

The advent of the Internet however caused virus creators to change their objectives, and, from that moment on, they tried to infect as many computers as possible in the shortest time. Also, the introduction of Internet services -like e-banking or online shopping- brought in another change. Some virus creators started writing malicious codes not to infect computers, but, to steal confidential data associated to those services. Evidently, to achieve this, they needed viruses that could infect many computers silently.

Their malicious labor was finally rewarded with the appearance, in 1986, of a new breed of malicious code generically called “Trojan Horse”, or simply “Trojan”. This first Trojan was called PC-Write and tried to pass itself off as the shareware version of a text processor. When run, the Trojan displayed a functional text processor on screen. The problem was that, while the user wrote, PC-Write deleted and corrupted files on the computers’ hard disk.

After PC-Write, this type of malicious code evolved very quickly to reach the stage of present-day Trojans. Today, many of the people who design Trojans to steal data cannot be considered virus writers but simply thieves who, instead of using blowtorches or dynamite have turned to viruses to commit their crimes. Ldpinch.W or the Bancos or Tolger families of Trojans are examples of this

part 5

Even though none of them can be left aside, some particular fields of computer science have played a more determinant role than others with regard to the evolution of viruses. One of the most influential fields has been the development of programming languages.

These languages are basically a means of communication with computers in order to tell them what to do. Even though each of them has its own specific development and formulation rules, computers in fact understand only one language called "machine code".

Programming languages act as an interpreter between the programmer and the computer. Obviously, the more directly you can communicate with the computer, the better it will understand you, and more complex actions you can ask it to perform.

According to this, programming languages can be divided into "low and high level" languages, depending on whether their syntax is more understandable for programmers or for computers. A "high level" language uses expressions that are easily understandable for most programmers, but not so much for computers. Visual Basic and C are good examples of this type of language.

On the contrary, expressions used by "low level" languages are closer to machine code, but are very difficult to understand for someone who has not been involved in the programming process. One of the most powerful, most widely used examples of this type of language is "assembler".

In order to explain the use of programming languages through virus history, it is necessary to refer to hardware evolution. It is not difficult to understand that an old 8-bit processor does not have the power of modern 64-bit processors, and this of course, has had an impact on the programming languages used.

In this and the next installments of this series, we will look at the different programming languages used by virus creators through computer history:

- Virus antecessors: Core Wars

As was already explained in the first chapter of this series, a group of programs called Core Wars, developed by engineers at an important telecommunications company, are considered the antecessors of current-day viruses. Computer science was still in the early stages and programming languages had hardly developed. For this reason, authors of these proto-viruses used a language that was almost equal to machine code to program them.

Curiously enough, it seems that one of the Core Wars programmers was Robert Thomas Morris, whose son programmed -years later- the "Morris worm". This malicious code became extraordinarily famous since it managed to infect 6,000 computers, an impressive figure for 1988.

- The new gurus of the 8-bits and the assembler language.

The names Altair, IMSAI and Apple in USA and Sinclair, Atari and Commodore in Europe, bring memories of times gone by, when a new generation of computer enthusiasts "fought" to establish their place in the programming world. To be the best, programmers needed to have profound knowledge of machine code and assembler, as interpreters of high-level languages used too much run time. BASIC, for example, was a relatively easy to learn language which allowed users to develop programs simply and quickly. It had however, many limitations.

This caused the appearance of two groups of programmers: those who used assembler and those who turned to high-level languages (BASIC and PASCAL, mainly).

Computer aficionados of the time enjoyed themselves more by programming useful software than malware. However, 1981 saw the birth of what can be considered the first 8-bit virus. Its name was "Elk Cloner", and was programmed in machine code. This virus could infect Apple II systems and displayed a message when it infected a computer.

part 6

Computer viruses evolve in much the same way as in other areas of IT. Two of the most important factors in understanding how viruses have reached their current level are the development of programming languages and the appearance of increasingly powerful hardware.

In 1981, almost at the same time as Elk Kloner (the first virus for 8-bit processors) made its appearance, a new operating system was growing in popularity. Its full name was Microsoft Disk Operating System, although computer buffs throughout the world would soon refer to it simply as DOS.

DOS viruses

The development of MS DOS systems occurred in parallel to the appearance of new, more powerful hardware. Personal computers were gradually establishing themselves as tools that people could use in their everyday lives, and the result was that the number of PCs users grew substantially. Perhaps inevitably, more users also started creating viruses. Gradually, we witnessed the appearance of the first viruses and Trojans for DOS, written in assembler language and demonstrating a degree of skill on the part of their authors.

Far less programmers know assembler language than are familiar with high-level languages that are far easier to learn. Malicious code written in Fortran, Basic, Cobol, C or Pascal soon began to appear. The last two languages, which are well established and very powerful, are the most widely used, particularly in their TurboC and Turbo Pascal versions. This ultimately led to the appearance of “virus families”: that is, viruses that are followed by a vast number of related viruses which are slightly modified forms of the original code.

Other users took the less ‘artistic’ approach of creating destructive viruses that did not require any great knowledge of programming. As a result, batch processing file viruses or BAT viruses began to appear.

Win16 viruses

The development of 16-bit processors led to a new era in computing. The first consequence was the birth of Windows, which, at the time, was just an application to make it easier to handle DOS using a graphic interface.

The structure of Windows 3.xx files is rather difficult to understand, and the assembler language code is very complicated, as a result of which few programmers initially attempted to develop viruses for this platform. But this problem was soon solved thanks to the development of programming tools for high-level languages, above all Visual Basic. This application is so effective that many virus creators adopted it as their ‘daily working tool’. This meant that writing a virus had become a very straightforward task, and viruses soon appeared in their hundreds. This development was accompanied by the appearance of the first Trojans able to steal passwords. As a result, more than 500 variants of the AOL Trojan family -designed to steal personal information from infected computers- were identified.

part 7

This seventh edition on the history of computer viruses will look at how the development of Windows and Visual Basic has influenced the evolution of viruses, as with the development of these, worldwide epidemics also evolved such as the first one caused by Melissa in 1999.

While Windows changed from being an application designed to make DOS easier to manage to a 32-bit platform and operating system in its own right, virus creators went back to using assembler as the main language for programming viruses.

Versions 5 and 6 of Visual Basic (VB) were developed, making it the preferred tool, along with Borland Delphi (the Pascal development for the Windows environment), for Trojan and worm writers. Then, Visual C, a powerful environment developed in C for Windows, was adopted for creating viruses, Trojans and worms. This last type of malware gained unusual strength, taking over almost all other types of viruses. Even though the characteristics of worms have changed over time, they all have the same objective: to spread to as many computers as possible, as quickly as possible.

With time, Visual Basic became extremely popular and Microsoft implemented part of the functionality of this language as an interpreter capable of running script files with a similar syntax.

At the same time as the Win32 platform was implemented, the first script viruses also appeared: malware inside a simple text file. These demonstrated that not only executable files (.EXE and .COM files) could carry viruses. As already seen with BAT viruses, there are also other means of propagation, proving the saying "anything that can be executed directly or through a interpreter can contain malware." To be specific, the first viruses that infected the macros included in Microsoft Office emerged. As a result, Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint become ways of spreading ‘lethal weapons’, which destroyed information when the user simply opened a document.

Melissa and self-executing worms

The powerful script interpreters in Microsoft Office allowed virus authors to arm their creations with the characteristics of worms. A clear example is Melissa, a Word macro virus with the characteristics of a worm that infects Word 97 and 2000 documents. This worm automatically sends itself out as an attachment to an e-mail message to the first 50 contacts in the Outlook address book on the affected computer. This technique, which has unfortunately become very popular nowadays, was first used in this virus which, in 1999, caused one of the largest epidemics in computer history in just a few days. In fact, companies like Microsoft, Intel or Lucent Technologies had to block their connections to the Internet due to the actions of Melissa.

The technique started by Melissa was developed in 1999 by viruses like VBS/Freelink, which unlike its predecessor sent itself out to all the contacts in the address book on the infected PC. This started a new wave of worms capable of sending themselves out to all the contacts in the Outlook address book on the infected computer. Of these, the worm that most stands out from the rest is VBS/LoveLetter, more commonly known as ‘I love You’, which emerged in May 2000 and caused an epidemic that caused damage estimated at 10,000 million euros. In order to get the user’s attention and help it to spread, this worm sent itself out in an e-mail message with the subject ‘ILOVEYOU’ and an attached file called ‘LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.VBS’. When the user opened this attachment, the computer was infected.

As well as Melissa, in 1999 another type of virus emerged that also marked a milestone in virus history. In November of that year, VBS/BubbleBoy appeared, a new type of Internet worm written in VB Script. VBS/BubbleBoy was automatically run without the user needing to click on an attached file, as it exploited a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 5 to automatically run when the message was opened or viewed. This worm was followed in 2000 by JS/Kak.Worm, which spread by hiding behind Java Script in the auto-signature in Microsoft Outlook Express, allowing it to infect computers without the user needing to run an attached file. These were the first samples of a series of worms, which were joined later on by worms capable of attacking computers when the user is browsing the Internet.

Add A Url Address Bar To The Taskbar

2009-01-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

You can add an Internet URL address bar to your Windows XP taskbar. Doing so will let you type in URLs and launch Web pages without first launching a browser. It will also let you launch some native Windows XP applications in much the same way as you would via the Run menu (so you could type in calc to launch the calculator or mspaint to launch Microsoft Paint. Here's how you add the address bar:

1. Right-click on the taskbar, select Toolbars, and then click Address.

2. The word Address will appear on your taskbar.

3. Double click it to access it.

4. If that doesn't work, your taskbar is locked. You can unlock it by right-clicking on the taskbar again and uncheck Lock the Taskbar.

NOTE: You may also need to grab the vertical dotted lines beside the word Address and drag it to the left to make the Address window appear.

Creating a Board or Forum on your own PC

2009-01-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

First of all you need Apache Server, PHP, MySQL and a Forum Script i.e. phpBB or Invision or vBulletin.

Download phpDev here

http://keihanna.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/phpdev5/phpdev423.exe
and you get a bundle of all the things above.

exttract & install php dev. start the apache server,its 90% done.

upload the forum script to X:/phpdev/www/public
(x is your drive, usually C: )

now to access the forum through internet you will not know your IP address thru ipconfig command..

go to

http://www.whatismyip.com

see whats your IP address.

now go to

http://your ip address/public/your forum directory/install.php

thats it!

Access Your Folders From Your Taskbar

2009-01-06T03:32:00.000-08:00

This is an easy way to get to the folders on your system without having to open a Windows Explorer Window every time you want to access files. I find it very useful to have this feature as it allows me to access my Folders and Drives immediately and saves me a lot of time.

This works in Windows XP:

1. Right Click an empty spot on your Taskbar (Between your Start Button and your System Tray).
2. Click Toolbars.
3. Click New Toolbar.
4. A Small Window will Open that allows you to pick the folder you wish to make a Toolbar. If you want to access your Desktop Without having to minimize all your windows. Just Pick Desktop. If you want to access ONLY your My Documents Folder, Select that. Any folder will work for this.
5. Click OK.
The New Tool bar will appear at the bottom of your screen next to your System Tray.

If you find this to be not useful, Repeat Steps 1 and 2 and then check click the Toolbar you created that has a check mark next to it. And it will disappear.

Windows True Hidden Files

2009-01-04T21:54:00.000-08:00

--ACRONYMS--
DOS = Disk Operating System, or MS-DOS
MSIE = Microsoft Internet Explorer
TIF = Temporary Internet Files (folder)
HD = Hard Drive
OS = Operating System
FYI = For Your Information

1)SEEING IS BELIEVING
No. Enabling Windows Explorer to "show all files" does not show the files in mention. No. DOS does not
list the files after receiving a proper directory listing from root. And yes. Microsoft intentionally
disabled the "Find" utility from searching through one of the folders.

Oh, but that's not all.

To see for yourself simply do as you would normally do to clear your browsing history. Go to Internet
Options under your Control Panel. Click on the [Clear History] and [Delete Files] buttons. (Make sure
to include all offline content.)

So, has your browsing history been cleared? One would think so.

These are the names and locations of the "really hidden files":

c:\windows\history\history.ie5\index.dat
c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\index.dat
If you have upgraded MSIE several times, they might have alternative names of mm256.dat and
mm2048.dat, and may also be located here:

c:\windows\tempor~1\
c:\windows\history\
Not to mention the other alternative locations under:

c:\windows\profiles\%user%\...
c:\windows\application data\...
c:\windows\local settings\...
c:\windows\temp\...
c:\temp\...
(or as defined in your autoexec.bat.)

FYI, there are a couple other index.dat files that get hidden as well, but they are seemingly not very
important. See if you can find them.

2)IF YOU HAVE EVER USED MICROSOFT INTERNET EXPLORER
1) Shut your computer down, and turn it back on.
2) While your computer is booting keep pressing the [F8] key until you are given an option screen.
3) Choose "Command Prompt Only" (This will take you to true DOS mode.) Windows ME users must use a boot
disk to get into real DOS mode.
4) When your computer is done booting, you will have a C:\> followed by a blinking cursor.
Type this in, hitting enter after each line. (Obviously, don't type the comments in parentheses.)

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV (Loads smartdrive to speed things up.)
CD\
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This line removes temporary files.)
CD WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y COOKIES (This line removes cookies.)
DELTREE/Y TEMP (This removes temporary files.)
DELTREE/Y HISTORY (This line removes your browsing history.)
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1 (This line removes your internet cache.)

(If that last line doesn't work, then type this

CD\WINDOWS\APPLIC~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1

(If that didn't work, then type this

CD\WINDOWS\LOCALS~1
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1
If you have profiles turned on, then it is likely located under \windows\profiles\%user%\, while older
versions of MSIE keep them under \windows\content\.)

FYI, Windows re-creates the index.dat files automatically when you reboot your machine, so don't be
surprised when you see them again. They should at least be cleared of your browsing history.

3)CLEARING YOUR REGISTRY
It was once believed that the registry is the central database of Windows that stores and maintains the
OS configuration information. Well, this is wrong. Apparently, it also maintains a bunch of other
information that has absolutely nothing to do with the configuration. I won't get into the other
stuff, but for one, your typed URLs are stored in the registry.

HKEY_USERS/Default/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/TypedURLs/
These "Typed URLs" come from MSIE's autocomplete feature. It records all URLs that you've typed in manually
in order to save you some time filling out the address field.

4)SLACK FILES
As you may already know, deleting files only deletes the references to them. They are in fact still sitting
there on your HD and can still be recovered by a very motivated person.
Use window washer to delete slack files. /http://www.webroot.com/download/0506/reg3ww.exe

5)STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE THROUGH YOUR HIDDEN FILES
The most important files to be paying attention to are your "index.dat" files. These are database files
that reference your history, cache and cookies. The first thing you should know is that the index.dat files
is that they don't exist in less you know they do. They second thing you should know about them is that
some will *not* get cleared after deleting your history and cache.

To view these files, follow these steps:

In MSIE 5.x, you can skip this first step by opening MSIE and going to Tools > Internet Options > [Settings] > [View Files].
Now write down the names of your alphanumeric folders on a piece of paper. If you can't see any alphanumeric
folders then start with step 1 here:

1) First, drop to a DOS box and type this at prompt (in all lower-case). It will bring up Windows Explorer
under the correct directory.

c:\windows\explorer /e,c:\windows\tempor~1\content.ie5\
You see all those alphanumeric names listed under "content.ie5?" (left-hand side.) That's Microsoft's
idea of making this project as hard as possible. Actually, these are your alphanumeric folders that was
created to keep your cache. Write these names down on a piece of paper. (They should look something like
this: 6YQ2GSWF, QRM7KL3F, U7YHQKI4, 7YMZ516U, etc.) If you click on any of the alphanumeric folders then
nothing will be displayed. Not because there aren't any files here, but because Windows Explorer has lied
to you. If you want to view the contents of these alphanumeric folders you will have to do so in DOS.

2) Then you must restart in MS-DOS mode. (Start > Shutdown > Restart in MS-DOS mode. ME users use a
bootdisk.)

Note that you must restart to DOS because windows has locked down some of the files and they can only be
accessed in real DOS mode.

3) Type this in at prompt:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
CD %alphanumeric%
(replace the "%alphanumeric%" with the first name that you just wrote down.)

DIR/P
The cache files you are now looking at are directly responsible for the mysterious erosion of HD space
you may have been noticing.

5) Type this in:

CD\WINDOWS\TEMPOR~1\CONTENT.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
You will be brought to a blue screen with a bunch of binary.

6) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLs. These are all the sites
that you've ever visited as well as a brief description of each. You'll notice it records everything
ou've searched for in a search engine in plain text, in addition to the URL.

7) When you get done searching around you can go to File > Exit. If you don't have mouse support in DOS
then use the [ALT] and arrow keys.

Next you'll probably want to erase these files by typing this:

C:\WINDOWS\SMARTDRV
CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y TEMPOR~1
(replace "cd\windows" with the location of your TIF folder if different.)

9) Then check out the contents of your History folder by typing this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
You will be brought to a blue screen with more binary.

10) Press and hold the [Page Down] button until you start seeing lists of URLS again.

This is another database of the sites you've visited.

11) And if you're still with me, type this:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY
12) If you see any mmXXXX.dat files here then check them out (and delete them.) Then:

CD\WINDOWS\HISTORY\HISTORY.IE5
CD MSHIST~1
EDIT /75 INDEX.DAT
More URLs from your internet history. Note, there are probably other mshist~x folders here so you can
repeat these steps for every occurence if you please.

13) By now, you'll probably want to type in this:

CD\WINDOWS
DELTREE/Y HISTORY

6)HOW MICROSOFT DOES IT
How does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to DOS?

The only thing Microsoft had to do to make the folders/files invisible to a directory listing is to
set them +s[ystem]. That's it.

So how does Microsoft make these folders/files invisible to Windows Explorer?

The "desktop.ini" is a standard text file that can be added to any folder to customize certain aspects of
the folder's behavior. In these cases, Microsoft utilized the desktop.ini file to make these files
invisible. Invisible to Windows Explorer and even to the "Find: Files or Folders" utility. All that
Microsoft had to do was create a desktop.ini file with certain CLSID tags and the folders would disappear
like magic.

To show you exactly what's going on:

Found in the c:\windows\temporary internet files\desktop.ini and
the c:\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
Found in the c:\windows\history\desktop.ini and the c:\windows\history\history.ie5\desktop.ini is this text:

[.ShellClassInfo]
UICLSID={7BD29E00-76C1-11CF-9DD0-00A0C9034933}
CLSID={FF393560-C2A7-11CF-BFF4-444553540000}
The UICLSID line cloaks the folder in Windows Explorer. The CLSID line disables the "Find" utility
from searching through the folder.

To see for yourself, you can simply erase the desktop.ini files. You'll see that it will instantly give
Windows Explorer proper viewing functionality again, and the "Find" utility proper searching capabilities
again. Problem solved right? Actually, no. As it turns out, the desktop.ini files get reconstructed every
single time you restart your computer. Nice one, Slick.

Luckily there is a loophole which will keep Windows from hiding these folders. You can manually edit the
desktop.ini's and remove everything except for the "[.ShellClassInfo]" line. This will trick windows into
thinking they have still covered their tracks, and wininet won't think to reconstruct them.

Make Your Own Home Server

2008-12-20T06:34:00.001-08:00

An Introduction

In this tutorial you will learn how to step up your own server. This server will be comprised of Apache 1.3.5, PHP 4.2.0, and MySQL 3.23.49. This tutorial will address the basic setup of a server on your own computer. This means the removal of hassles of dealing with the company that is running a remote web server. It will be easy to modify. You can add any thing you want to it, be it CGI/Perl, Zope, Roxen, etc, all by your self. You will have unlimited disk space, well at least as big as your hard drive is =) Now that you know the advantages, it is time that I tell you what i used, and what you will need.

What I used
* Windows 2000 - NOTE that if you are using 2k you WILL NEED Administrative Privileges. If you don't then get them somehow =) If you are on 95, 98, NT, XP, ME, I
* Apache 1.3.6 - I tried to use 2.0 but I could not get it work. I also feel that 1.3.6 is tried and true, so why mess with greatness.
* Mysql 3.23.49 - The newest version of MySQL when I set up my server. MySQL also the is the best PHP supported Database, and well love PHP don't we.
* PHP 4.2.1 - The latest and greatest PHP release. -nt

What you will need
* Apache 2 - Link: h**p://www.apache.org/dist/
* Mysql 3.23.49 - Link: h**p://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html
* PHP 4.2.0 - Link: h**p://www.php.net/downloads.php
* Windows - This tutorial is ONLY written for new versions of Windows.

Once you have downloaded all the programs you are ready to continue.

1. Installing Apache

Installing Apache

The first step is to download Apache for Windows. Before you install it make sure that any other server software is removed. Remove it all via the control panel.On

Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should com up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

user posted image

You really don't need to read this, but if you want you can. Read it if you want feel informed. When you are ready click on next.

user posted image

Here is where the actual setup of Apache begins. For Network Domain put in localhost as for Server Name You want these both to be localhost because the server is running locally, on your computer. It doesn't matter what is in email field, just put in yours. No one will no it because it's just you.

user posted image

For the sake of this tutorial it is better to just leave it as it is because, later in the tutorial I will show you how to start the server with one click of the mouse, and for the sake of ease, it will be easier for you to follow along. You can change it if you want, but you will have to realize where to substitute it. For me the root drive is E: but for you will probably be C:

user posted image

Once you have all the jazz set up, it is time to install the server. If you are on w2k or XP be sure that you have Administrative permissions or you will get an error about half way through the install saving cannot access msvrt32.dll or something. If you get that error run it again when you have admin privileges. Once you are ready click on install.

user posted image

If all went well you just see a screen similar to this. Now it is time to test the install of apache. Click on Start > Program Files > Apache HTTP Server and look for start Start Apache in Console. Click it. Once it says Apache XXXXX running, press Windows Key + R and type -http://localhost/. If the install works you should see a page saying that it works. If all is set and done, continue to the next step.

user posted image
______________________________________________________________________
2. Installing PHP
Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should come up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next.

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

user posted image

For this information, we will want the simple standard install. Chances are you if you are reading this tutorial, you will probably not even want to talk about advanced =)

user posted image

This is the mail setup, just enter localhost, and me@localhost.com. These are not important, because you, the admin, are the only person that will use the server, and you will be the one handling errors.

user posted image

We are going to want this install to work is Apache, so click on Apache, and move on.

user posted image

Once you have all the jazz set up, it is time to install the server. If you are on w2k or XP be sure that you have Administrative permission or you will get an error about half way through the install saving cannot access msvrt32.dll or something. If you get that error run it again when you have admin privileges. Once you are ready click on install.

user posted image

After the install is done you should get something that says you will have to manually configure apache to use php. Assuming you have a working Apache server installed, make sure that it is not running. Navigate to C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\conf\ open the httpd.conf file. Note that you can also get to the http.conf from the start menu. Start > Program File > Apache HTTP Server > Configure Apache Server > Edit the Apache httpd.conf Configuration File and the window will open up in notepad. Now hit Ctrl + End if you see something like what follows, you can skip this step. If you do not see that code, copy it. This code will only work if you used the default install folder when you installed php. If you did, copy that code and paste it into the end of the file. Select the code to right, and hit crtl + c , then go into the httpd.conf file and hit ctrl + v and save the file.

ScriptAlias /php/ "c:/php/"

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .phtml

Action application/x-httpd-php "/php/php.exe"

Now that we have php installed, it is time to test it. Open up notepad and type the code to the right. Save it as phpinfo.php. Remember to set it as all files in the drop down menu, or the file will be a text file. Save in the Directory: C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs. htdocs is the directory where all the files go. You can create endless dir's and browse them. For Example E:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\htdocs\mydir\myfile.php could be accessed as http://localhost/mydir/myfile.php. Once you have that file saved. You will need to start the Server. Click: Start > Program File > Apache HTTP Server >; and look for something like Start Apache in Console. After you have found it, launch it. You should get a window saying that Apache is running. Now go to Start > Run > and type in -http://localhost/phpinfo.php. If you don't see anything, php is not installed correctly. If php is installed correctly, you will see a few large tables, displaying php's configuration. Now Your are 1/2 done!
______________________________________________________________________
3. Installing MySQL
Once you have clicked on the executable, a screen should com up that looks like this. Go ahead and click on next.

user posted image

Of course you plan to abide be the license agreement, so click on I accept.... and click on next.

Just like before you should leave the default dir alone, so you will be able to follow along with me when I show you how to start and stop all the aspects of the server.

Stay with the typical installation. Just like before, if you don't have admin privileges, the install will be faulty. After you click next, the install will begin. After the install has finished, move on to the next step.

Now you have to set up the root account. The root account is the absolute admin of the system, the highest possible. Click on Start > Run and type cmd to open up the command prompt. You are going to have to navigate to where MySQL is installed. Type C: > Enter > cd mysql > Enter > cd bin > Enter. Now you have to tell setup the root settings. Type mysqladmin -uroot password InsertYourPasswordHere then hit enter.

To see an image of the screen, -h**p://www.webmasterstop.com/tutorials/images/doscreen1.gif

What is the point of having a database if you can't easily administer it! That is where phpMyAdmin comes into play. phpMyAdmin is a free piece of software written in php that makes the administration of a mysql or many other types of databases easy. You will want to download (h**p://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/phpmyadmin/phpMyAdmin-2.2.6-php.zip?downloadrelease_id=85832)the latest version. Save it in the htdocs folder. Once it is done downloading it, right click on it and select Extract > To Here. When it is done you should end up with a directory in the htdocs folder called phpMyAdmin-2.2.6 To make it easier to access, rename it to phpMyAdmin. After you have renamed it, click on it and look for a file called config.inc Open it. This is where you set the configuration of phpMyAdmin. When you open it up, it should look similar to the image to your side. On yours there should be a few things missing. The $cfgPmaAbsoulteUrl and $cfgservers[$i]['password']. You will need to fill those in between the quotes. for the $cfgPmaAbsoulteUrl enter -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/ if you followed my instructions to the letter. If you did not rename it or extracted to a different directory, put that in there. For the $cfgservers[$i]['password'] enter the password you entered when you were setting MySQL in the set above. You can refer to the image for help. After you have put the right things in save the file.

To see an image of the screen, -h**p://www.webmasterstop.com/tutorials/images/phpmyadminscreen1.gif

Now we want to test the install of mysql, php, phpmyadmin, and apache all at once. Start apache in console like we did before. Now, you are going to need to start mysql. For myself I made a file that would start mysql for me. Open notepad and type: start c:\mysql\bin\mysqld-nt.exe --standalone and save that as Start MySQL.bat. Once you have saved it, click it. A window should open and then close. Mysql is now running on your computer. After mysql and apache are started go to run again and type -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/index.php and if everything is installed correctly phpmyadmin should so up. You are almost done! Now we have the easy part =)

4. Finishing it all up

Wow! We mad it through the whole process. Now we want to simplify the whole process of controlling the server. I made a toolbar with all the things I needed. I made a new folder on my desktop and called it Server Folder and put all the stuff there. I made a new shortcut and gave it a value of -http://localhost/ made a shortcut to the PHP Documentation page. Another shortcut to my php editor, which is now unavailable. The phpMyAdmin shortcut is set to -http://localhost/phpMyAdmin/index.php. I made another shortcut htdocs. I moved the Start Apache in Console program that was in the start menu folder and moved it to the server folder. You can take the Start Mysql file you made in the last page and move it to the new folder. After you have put all the desired things into that folder, right click on a blank space in stat menu task bar (where the program boxes lie) and select Toolbars > New Toolbar and navigate to the folder. Voila!

Now all you have to do is click Start Apache in Console , Start Mysql, and Lauch browser..

Here You Are Guys

An introduction to set up your own server

2008-12-20T06:34:00.000-08:00

Keyboard Shortcuts for Microsoft Word

2008-12-16T20:40:00.000-08:00

CTRL and A Selects all in the current document.
CTRL and B Bold text.
CTRL and C Copies the item or text to the Clipboard and can be pasted using CTRL and V.
CTRL and D Displays the Font dialogue box.
CTRL and E Centre Alignment.
CTRL and F Displays the Find dialog box, to search the current document.
CTRL and G Displays the Go to dialog box, to go to a specific location in the current document.
CTRL and H Displays the Replace dialogue box.
CTRL and I Italic text.
CTRL and J Full Justification.
CTRL and K Create Hyperlink
CTRL and L Left Alignment
CTRL and M Tab
CTRL and N Creates a new document.
CTRL and O Displays the Open File dialogue box.
CTRL and P Displays the Print dialog box.
CTRL and R Right Alignment.
CTRL and S Displays the Save dialog box.
CTRL and U Underline text
CTRL and V Pastes the copied item or text from the Clipboard into the current position in the document.
CTRL and X Cuts the item or text selected to the Clipboard.
CTRL and Y Redo the last undone action.
CTRL and Z Undoes the last action.
CTRL and ENTER Insert Page Break.
CTRL and F2 Show Print preview.
CTRL and F4 Closes the active document window.
CTRL and F6 Opens the next document window.

Keyboard Shortcuts Result in Microsoft Word
F1 key Get help or use the Office assistant.
SHIFT and F1 Key Context sensitive help.
F2 Key Move text or image.
SHIFT and F2 Key Copy Text.
F3 Key Insert an autotext entry.
SHIFT and F3 Key Change the case of the selected text.
F4 Key Perform last action again.
SHIFT and F4 Key Perform a Find or Go to action again.
F5 Key Displays the Go to dialogue box, from here you can also Find and Replace.
SHIFT and F5 Key Move to a previous revision.
F6 Key Go to the next frame or pane.
SHIFT and F6 Key Go to the previous frame or pane.
F7 Key Launch the Spell checker.
SHIFT and F7 Key Launch the Thesaurus.
F8 Key Extend the current selection.
SHIFT and F8 Key Shrink the current selection.
F9 Key Update the selected fields.
SHIFT and F9 Key Switch between a field code and it's result.
F10 Key Activate the menu bar.
SHIFT and F10 Key Display a Shortcut Menu. Same as right clicking.
F11 Key Go to the next field.
SHIFT and F11 Key Go to the previous field.
F12 Key Save file As, equivalent to tools menu.
SHIFT and F12 Key Save document, equivalent to tools menu

Boot Windows XP Fast

2008-12-13T06:23:00.000-08:00

Follow the following steps

1. Open notepad.exe, type "del c:\windows\prefetch\ntosboot-*.* /q" (without the quotes) & save as "ntosboot.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 "Shutdown" in the right window.
4. In the new window, click "add", "Browse", locate your "ntosboot.bat" file & click "Open".
5. Click "OK", "Apply" & "OK" once again to exit.
6. From the Start menu, select "Run..." & type "devmgmt.msc".
7. Double click on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
8. Right click on "Primary IDE Channel" and select "Properties".
9. Select the "Advanced Settings" tab then on the device or 1 that doesn't have 'device type' greyed out select 'none' instead of 'autodetect' & click "OK".
10. Right click on "Secondary IDE channel", select "Properties" and repeat step 9.
11. Reboot your computer.

Customise Your start Button in Windows XP

2008-12-08T18:17:00.000-08:00

First you need a tool called "Resource Hacker". This free program allows you to change resources in any .exe file such as "Explorer.exe", which includes the [Start] button's Label. You can visit Download.com and search there for "Resource Hacker".
After you download it, follow the guide here:

Step 1:

A - Run "Resource Hacker" and open the file "%windir%\Explorer.exe".
B - You see a Tree of all Resources in this file, expand the "String Table"
C - Find the "start" and replace it with your own text. then press the [Compile Script] button.
D - Save "Explorer.exe" as "MyStart.exe" DONT save it as Explorer.exe, do "save as.." and give it a new name.
E - Quit "Resource Hacker".

Step 2:

A - Click on the [Start] button and choose the "Run..." item from the start menu. (Or use the shortcut key WinKey+R)
B - Type "RegEdit" in the Run "Dialog Box". And then press the [Ok] buton to run the "Registry Editor" program.
C - Go to: "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" and find the "Shell" property.
D - Replace value of the "Shell" property to "MyStart.exe".
E - Quit "Registry Editor".
F - Restart your system.

Note about Registry Editor:
if you did not find the key "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon", you can search the Registry for the "Explorer.exe", to do this use the Edit Menu | Find Next (Ctrl+F).

AmirBehzad Eslami's site has a handy tool for altering your start button, which makes life much easier, you can find his site here:
h**p://www.startbtn.main-page.com

Make a VCD from a DivX

2008-12-02T03:35:00.000-08:00

Tools required: Latest Virtual dub, TMPGEnc and Nero ( and the DivX codecs.)

Preparing:
Download all tools, Be sure to install DivX 3.11 DivX4 and the latest DivX5 codecs.

Extracting the audio : Start Virtualdub. Open your video File->Open video file.(if you get any warnings just ignore them because you won't edit the video just extract the audio)
Select File->File Information and note the fps as the video source fps because you will need it later.
Select under Audio->Full processing mode.
Select Audio->Compression and select
Select Audio->Conversion.
Change the the Sampling rate to 44100Hz if you are going to make VCD or SVCD MPEGs.
Save the wav by clicking on File->Save WAV...the wav will be a huge audio uncompressed video file(about 10 MB/minute.
Encoding:
Start TMPEnc. Press cancel if the Project Wizard comes.
Press Browse… and select the DivX file as Video source input.
Now you press the Browse button for choosing the Audio source input and use the saved wav file.
Press load and load the file which in the Template directory of TMPGenc.
If the video source fps is 29,970 load VideoCD (NTSC).mcf
If the video source fps is 23,970 load VideoCD (NTSCFilm).mcf
If the video source fps is 25,000 load VideoCD (PAL).mcf
If the video source fps is anything else else just load NTSC if you live in US or Japan and PAL if you live anywhere else.
Note if you live in US or Japan and get problem playing PAL, often causing black and white TV playback problems, then first check if you can change to PAL on your TV or DVD Player if not then instead convert it to NTSC by loading the VideoCD(NTSC) template.
Note if you live Europe and the rest of the world and get problem playing NTSC or NTSCFilm, often causing black and white TV playback problems, then first check if you can change to PAL on your TV or DVD Player if not convert it to PAL by loading the VideoCD(Pal) template.

Press Settings and choose Advanced.
Select Full screen (keep aspect ratio) under Video arrange method to keep the same aspect ratio(widescreen,fullscreen) as the video source(if you have a widescreen movie and you want it to be in fullscreen select No margin(keep aspect ratio).
Select Source range and double-click on it with the mouse.

In the next dialog you can choose the source range. This process depends on the DivX file. If the DivX file is less than 80min (for a 80min/700mb CDR) then you do not have to split the file to two CDs. Also if the DivX file is already in two parts you have just to convert the first file and then the second. But if there should be the case that the movie is in one file over 80minutes long then it is necessary to select the source range. In this new dialog you put the horizontal scrollbar to the middle of the selection so that you will get the same length on the first CD as on the second. After you selected the middle do you have press Set end frame. A new value should be under End Frame. This value you should notice somewhere for the encoding of the second part. Of course the start frame must be 0.

After pressing ok, you only have to select the output file name. I prefer the movie name with the CD number (e.g. Ghost in the Shell CD1) for the burning.
Now encode the file by pressing the Start-Button.
While encoding you can select File->Preview(it won't effect the encoding) to see how the output will be, it it looks wrong(widescreen or fullscreen) you can stop the encoding and start over and change especially the Settings->Advanced->Video arange method.)
If you only want to burn the movie on one CD jump to the burning guide else follow the next points.

Repeat the third, forth and fifth point. In the source range dialog you now use as Start frame the noticed value and move with the horizontal scrollbar to the end of the movie.
After pressing Set end frame, press two times OK.

Now select the output filename for the second file. (e.g. Ghost in the Shell CD2) and encode it.
After the encoding is done and you did all right, you should have for every CD a file.

Burning:
Launch Nero.Close the Wizard. Select File->New.
1. Select VideoCD
2. Select PAL or NTSC depending what format your source MPEG is in.
3. And hit New.

1. Locate your .mpg and drag it(see picture below). Remember that you can add several .mpgs also, each mpg will be a own track on the VCD and you can add data files also, just drag them to any folder.
2. Check the time. It should be the same as in the movie.

3. Rename the CD to anything you like by clicking F2 on NEW.

4. Select File->Write CD.

don't know about everyone else.. but the only options i choose on tmpgenc to make mpeg-1 files are either NTSC film 23.976, or NTSC video 29.97 fps..

i also live in the u.s. so i do all of mine accordingly.. why do you save the wave file with virtual dub.. or should i say, why do you even process the divx file with vdub.. yeah if it is your last resort and the divx for some reason doesn't open in tmpgenc.. i've got 180+ Divx movies, some downloaded mostly ripped, never had a problem encoding them with tmpgenc plus.

just seems like you are going from your a$$ to your elbow to do this.

1. take divx movie (120 minutes long for example).. open with vdub.. find a keyframe about halfway through the film, preferrably at a scene change.

choose "SET SELECTION START" from the EDIT menu.. scroll all the way to the end of the film, choose "SET SELECTION END"... hit DELETE or choose "DELETE SELECTION", all from the EDIT menu

2. Now you have 1 half of your movie. under the VIDEO menu, choose "DIRECT STREAM COPY", also make sure that under AUDIO is going to generate a "DIRECT STREAAM COPY". Then go to FILE and choose "SAVE as AVI..."

on a newer computer this will take less than 2 minutes..

3. When it is complete, the quickest way to proceed is to just click on FILE / "OPEN VIDEO FILE". at the beginning of the clip, choose "SET SELECTION START" again, snap back to the keyframe (half way through the film) which you cut half the film off at and choose "SET SELECTION END". DELETE... FILE / "SAVE AS AVI..." save as the other half of film..

once again, will usually take less than 2 minutes...

4. choose option accordingly, this next part can be important.. (i'm going to give the rest of the instructions as if you were making ntsc movie)

since you want to make a standard mpeg-1 file, choose NTSC FILM or NTSC VIDEO.. BROWSE for your file, then hit NEXT, then it OTHER SETTINGS / ADVANCED tab ... now there is an option that says "VIDEO ARRANGE METHOD".. if you are making a fullscreen movie, lleave on FULLSCREEN.. if you are encoding a widescreen movie, choose "FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO).. OK / NEXT / NEXT (you get the point)

basically takes 1 step out of the tutorial above.. the instructions for nero appear to be correct.. but here's another tip..

dvd burners are becoming more and more popular and even i got one now, like many of you do. tired of old vcd's or wanna encode a VCD standard DVD with nearly 9 hours of video (but same quality as normal 80 minute VCD),

if this is the case, make sure you encode your DivX files as "NTSC VIDEO 29.97 FPS".. even if source is 23 fps... and once you have 3 or 4 movies, get yourself a proggy called TMPGENC DVD AUTHOR.. make a track for each movie.. and you got yourself a dvd with 3 or 4 average length movies on 1 dvd (with menus if you like) that is WAY MORE COMPATIBLE than a VCD..

do a search for the keyword VCD-DVD and i posted a more descriptive tutorial on how to do this..

Executeing chm files in linux

2008-11-29T16:52:00.000-08:00

Download the following rpms on ur pc:-

http://dag.wieers.com/packages/chmlib/chmlib-0.35-1.1.fc3.rf.i386.rpm
ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/dag/fedora/3/en/i386/dag/RPMS/wxGTK-2.4.2-5.1.fc3.rf.i386.rpm
http://acmserver.cs.ucr.edu/%7Ensoracco/rpms/xchm-0.9.8-1.i386.rpm

and also install them in the same sequence. using the command:-

rpm -ivh

Note:- i am giving the path of packages for fedora cpre 3. if want for any other os take a look at the following sites.

chmlib:- http://dag.wieers.com/packages/chmlib/
wxGTK:- ftp://rpmfind.net/linux/dag/
xchm: - platform independent for all redhat's.............

Optimize and Speed Up Broadband & Dsl Connections

2008-11-28T03:43:00.000-08:00

These settings allow you to boost the speed of your broadband Internet connection when using a Cable Modem or DSL Router with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create the following DWORD values, as most of these values will not already exist you will need to create them by clicking on 'Edit -> New -> DWORD Value' and then set the value as shown below.

DefaultTTL = "80" hex (or 128 decimal)
Specifies the default time to live (TTL) for TCP/IP packets. The default is 32.

EnablePMTUBHDetect = "0"
Specifies whether the stack will attempt to detect Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) routers that do not send back ICMP fragmentation-needed messages. The default is 0.

EnablePMTUDiscovery = "1"
Specifies whether the TCP/IP stack will attempt to perform path MTU discovery as specified in RFC 1191. The default is 1.

GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the system maximum receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack.

TcpMaxDupAcks = "2"
Determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered.

SackOpts = "1"
Enables support for selective acknowledgements as documented by Request for Comment (RFC) 2018. Default is 0.

Tcp1323Opts = "1"
Controls RFC 1323 time stamps and window scaling options. Possible values are: "0" = disable RFC 1323 options, "1" = window scale enabled only, "2" = time stamps enabled only and "3" = both options enabled.

TcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack. If you have a latent network you can try increasing the value to 93440, 186880, or 372300.

Exit your registry and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.

If you don’t want to edit the registry, here's a little TCP utility that is ideal...

http://www.broadbandreports.com/front/doctorping.zip

Beep Codes Error Codes and their description

2008-11-18T06:10:00.000-08:00

Standard Original IBM POST Error Codes
Code Description

1 short beep System is OK
2 short beeps POST Error - error code shown on screen No beep Power supply or system board problem Continuous beep Power supply, system board, or keyboard problem Repeating short beeps Power supply or system board problem
1 long, 1 short beep System board problem
1 long, 2 short beeps Display adapter problem (MDA, CGA)
1 long, 3 short beeps Display adapter problem (EGA)
3 long beeps 3270 keyboard card
IBM POST Diagnostic Code Descriptions
Code Description
100 - 199 System Board
200 - 299 Memory
300 - 399 Keyboard
400 - 499 Monochrome Display
500 - 599 Colour/Graphics Display
600 - 699 Floppy-disk drive and/or Adapter
700 - 799 Math Coprocessor
900 - 999 Parallel Printer Port
1000 - 1099 Alternate Printer Adapter
1100 - 1299 Asynchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port
1300 - 1399 Game Port
1400 - 1499 Colour/Graphics Printer
1500 - 1599 Synchronous Communication Device, Adapter, or Port
1700 - 1799 Hard Drive and/or Adapter
1800 - 1899 Expansion Unit (XT)
2000 - 2199 Bisynchronous Communication Adapter
2400 - 2599 EGA system-board Video (MCA)
3000 - 3199 LAN Adapter
4800 - 4999 Internal Modem
7000 - 7099 Phoenix BIOS Chips
7300 - 7399 3.5" Disk Drive
8900 - 8999 MIDI Adapter
11200 - 11299 SCSI Adapter
21000 - 21099 SCSI Fixed Disk and Controller
21500 - 21599 SCSI CD-ROM System

AMI BIOS Beep Codes
Code Description

1 Short Beep System OK
2 Short Beeps Parity error in the first 64 KB of memory
3 Short Beeps Memory failure in the first 64 KB
4 Short Beeps Memory failure in the first 64 KB Operational of memory
or Timer 1 on the motherboard is not functioning
5 Short Beeps The CPU on the motherboard generated an error
6 Short Beeps The keyboard controller may be bad. The BIOS cannot switch to protected mode
7 Short Beeps The CPU generated an exception interrupt
8 Short Beeps The system video adapter is either missing, or its memory is faulty
9 Short Beeps The ROM checksum value does not match the value encoded in the BIOS
10 Short Beeps The shutdown register for CMOS RAM failed
11 Short Beeps The external cache is faulty
1 Long, 3 Short Beeps Memory Problems
1 Long, 8 Short Beeps Video Card Problems

Phoenix BIOS Beep Codes
Note - Phoenix BIOS emits three sets of beeps, separated by a brief pause.

Code Description
1-1-3 CMOS read/write failure
1-1-4 ROM BIOS checksum error
1-2-1 Programmable interval timer failure
1-2-2 DMA initialisation failure
1-2-3 DMA page register read/write failure
1-3-1 RAM refresh verification failure
1-3-3 First 64k RAM chip or data line failure
1-3-4 First 64k RAM odd/even logic failure
1-4-1 Address line failure first 64k RAM
1-4-2 Parity failure first 64k RAM
2-_-_ Faulty Memory
3-1-_ Faulty Motherboard
3-2-4 Keyboard controller Test failure
3-3-4 Screen initialisation failure
3-4-1 Screen retrace test failure
3-4-2 Search for video ROM in progress
4-2-1 Timer tick interrupt in progress or failure
4-2-2 Shutdown test in progress or failure
4-2-3 Gate A20 failure
4-2-4 Unexpected interrupt in protected mode
4-3-1 RAM test in progress or failure>ffffh
4-3-2 Faulty Motherboard
4-3-3 Interval timer channel 2 test or failure
4-3-4 Time of Day clock test failure
4-4-1 Serial port test or failure
4-4-2 Parallel port test or failure
4-4-3 Math coprocessor test or failure
Low 1-1-2 System Board select failure
Low 1-1-3 Extended CMOS RAM failure

How to do a high Quality DivX rip

2008-11-18T01:58:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, go to

http://www.doom9.org

and go to their downloads section.
get the following files:
under Audio:
Besweet
Besweet GUI

Under Codecs:
DivX 5.2.1 Pro

Under Divx/Mpeg-4 encoders:
Nandub 1.0RC2

then get this:
http://www.dvd-digest.tv/downloads/files/virtualdub/vdub_pack-145.exe
alternatively, get any version of virtualdub that includes mp3 support.

these are all the required tools, there are ways with fewer items, but they produce very inferior outputs. Besides, after you get used to it, the whole process is really easy.

Okay, first and foremost, pull out Nandub. This is the step that takes the longest, as well as where you will make most of your decisions. I am going to assume that you are making a 1 cd rip. If you do what is in this faq, there won't be much reason to do anything else. Twisted Evil

First of all, run Nandub . It will pop up a dialogue box, and want to know if you are making a new project or resuming an old. New, of course. Give it a name and tell fairuse where you want it to store its data. Fairuse is about to rip the entire movie to your harddrive(nice if you want to go rent a movie and return it the next day).

Then it will ask for your DVD drive with a dvd in it. give it. Then, select which video stream you want. This is usually pretty obvious as the movie stream is the one that is an hour or so long. If there are two of these, check out the other tags. which languages and so on. worst case senario is that you have to trial and error. but that is rare. choose the long stream and hit next.

This is where Nandub rips everything to your hard drive. depending on the speed of various components in your computer, and the length of the movie, this could take a while. let it finish. and then move on.

Once all that is done, the really important screen pops up. this is where you set resolutions and video length. first, cut off the ending credits with the slider, but DO NOT mess with the beginning, as the sound and video frames need to start at the same point for sync. Then hit auto set for the cropping region, this is usually just fine. Then decide whether or not you want subtitles, which would be the subpicture stream. When you're done, hit next.

Set the field mode to IVTC. This will give you better quality for size, as it runs at 24 frames instead of 30, due to the nature of divx, there won't be any noticeable difference in quality, but 6 less frames to deal with each second(and to store data for) really add up. Besides this is the correct mode for all movies anyway. NExt.

This is where you set FINAL file size, including audio, for 1 cd rip, set to 690, for 2, set to double that. Then follow the directions they give you and choose a final resolution that has between a 120:1 and 150:1 (if possible, sometimes the movie is compression ratio. NEXT!

This screen is where you determine quality. The autoadd button is usefull, and will give you decent quality, with 4 encodings. What this does is encode the movie 4 times, and then mix the frames to creat the final encoding, with the most efficient possible encoding for each frame. which is how we get bad ass quality for a single cd. I usually go for 8 encodings, as on my athlon 1600+ this rarely takes more than 8 hours to do, so I just go to sleep, wake up, and its done.

Then add the audio encoding that you want.

Hit next.
And let the bastard fly. Depending on what you set, and your computer, this could take from a few hours to a few days. CPU's of 1.2Ghz+ are nice right about here. You can do stuff while this is going on, but it makes things take much longer.

In the end you will have a bunch of encodings in the folder you specified at the beginning, the 4+ you chose and the final. You will also have an AC3 stream. Take the final AVI and toss it someplace to await the rest of the audio work you have to do, and you can erase the other encodings, freeing up a few gigs in the process of space.

NEXT: AUDIO

Ok, this is where Besweet comes in.

Extract BeSweet and the GUI into the same folder. Now Run the GUI.

At the top there are three fields. One for BeSweet which you should point at the besweet.exe that you should have unzipped to the same directory you are running the Gui from, A field for the AC3 stream, which is in the folder where you sent the encoded video from Fairuse, and an output mp3. The output mp3 has to be an existing file, so make a text file, rename it (yourmovie).mp3 and just say yeah, its cool to change the extension and make things weird. besweet will overwrite it so don't worry. point the third field at that file. The default values for stuff should be fine. but to make sure go to Azid 1(on the left) and select stereo, and then go to Lame 2 and select constant bit rate, and 128(assuming that is what you want). then click on besweet again, and finally, click on AC3 to MP3.

Let the bastard fly.

Now. When its done you should have an mp3 that is the entire soundtrack for the movie. This is where virtualdub comes in. run the virtualdub mp3 version. go to File:open video file and select the final encoding that you had from way back. Then go to audio and select mp3 audio. it will ask you for the file, give it the mp3. Go to audio again and make sure direct stream copy is selected. Then go to video and make sure that direct stream copy is also selected. Finally go to file again and SAVE AVI. give it a file name and let the bastard fly. This final file is your movie. Beautiful and glorious. Congratulations, its a DivX rip. Aren't you proud. burn to cd, and give copies to all your friends.

Note: These is a RIP

Increase number of XP Folder Settings

2008-11-02T03:21:00.000-08:00

Windows remembers 400 folder settings. When that number is reached some settings aren't retained any longer. You can change this to 8000 by adding this edit to the registry.

1. Copy the following (everything in the box) into notepdad.

QUOTE
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\BagMRU]
[-HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam\Bags]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00001f40

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ShellNoRoam]
"BagMRU Size"=dword:00001f40

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

2. Save the file as folder8000.reg
3. Double click the file to import into your registry.

Remove and Add Right-Click Menu Items

2008-10-19T03:55:00.000-07:00

Removing Items
A lot of programs you install will add themselves to the right-click menu of your files and/or folders. And most times, you have no choice in the matter and, as a result, your right-click menu can get very long with added items you don't even use. The last person I was helping with this had a right context menu so long that the Rename option was no longer visible!
Fortunately, you can easily remove those unwanted menu items, if you know the registry values to edit. And it's not at all difficult once you know the keys responsible for the additions.

For Files, the secret lies in the "context menu handlers" under the shellex subkey for "All Files" which, in the registry, is nothing but an asterisk - like a dos wildcard, which means the values entered apply to all files. It is at the very top of the Root key, right here:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Click the the + sign next to the ContextMenuHandlers key, to expand it.
Now you will see some of the programs that have added items to your right-click menu. Simply delete the program keys you don't want.
Yup! It's that simple. If deleting makes you uneasy, just export the key before deleting it. Or, instead of deleting the values, disable them. Simply double click the default value for the program on the right hand pane and rename the clsid value by placing a period or dash in front of it.
ie; - {b5eedee0-c06e-11cf-8c56-444553540000}
Then exit the registry, refresh, and right click a file to see if the item was removed from the menu.
Some programs - like WinZip or WinRar - will add several items to your right click menu but all of them will be removed by deleting or disabling their one context menu handler.

Note that the above key only applies to the right click menu of files.
To remove entries from the right click context menu of folders, you need to navigate to the Folder and Drive keys:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Drive\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

All you have to do is follow the same procedure as for Files - either disable or delete items you wish to remove.

Adding Items

Adding Items to the right click menu of Files and Folders is also fairly simple using the Registry. It just involves the creation of a few new keys for each item you wish to add. You edit the same keys used for removing items. Let's use Notepad as an example of an item you'd like to add to the right click menu of all your files or folders.

For folders, go to this key:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder
Click the + sign next to Folder and expand it so that the Shell key is visible. Right click the Shell key and choose New>Key and name the key Notepad or whatever else you'd prefer (whatever the key is named is what will appear in the right-click menu). Now right click the new key you made and create another key named Command. Then, in the right hand pane, double click "Default" and enter Notepad.exe as the value.
Exit the registry, refresh, and right click any folder. Notepad should now be on the context menu.

For files, go here again:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\*
Expand the * key and see if a Shell key exists. If it does exist, follow the same procedure as for folders. If it does not exist, you'll have to create a new Shell first. Just right click the * key and choose New>Key and name it Shell. Then right click the Shell key and continue on the same way you did for adding items to the right click menu of folders.
Once done, Notepad should appear as an option in the right click menu of all your files.

Make A 16 Hour Video Dvd

2008-10-17T03:46:00.000-07:00

3 things are needed

1. Proper Codecs
2. TMPGEnc 3 Express (Best for this job IMO)
3. TMPGEnc DVD Author (Dual Layer Edition)

simply start a new project in TMPGEnc 3 Express, Set the output for said file as an NTSC MPEG1 (VIDEO CD)

Make sure you set at NTSC (TMPGENC WILL ONLY ACCEPT IF FRAMERATE IS 29.97 FPS)

once you have made roughly 8 hours / 16 hours depending... of video files open TMPGEnc DVD Author..

Simply press "SOURCE SETUP" you will notice you can set up multiple 'tracks'

if you add more than one file to 1 track, the program automatically sets up 'chapters'

just add your video files (and follow the steps in the program).. it will take roughly an hour or 2 to do an 8 hour disc, maybe 3 or 4 for a 16 hour disc (i don't have a dual layer burner but i am sure that it works)..

THESE WORK IN PLAYSTATION 2's!!! I KNOW BECAUSE ITS HOW I MAKE MINE AT TIMES...

only way i know to get this much footage (And have it still work in something as simple as a ps2)