Windows XP n Vista Tricks

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Add and Remove Destinations for the Send To Option
2007-07-23 16:28:00
The right-click context menu does have one useful option, Send To, which allows you to send the file to any one of a list of programs or locationsfor example, to a drive, program, or folder.It would be nice to edit that list, adding new locations and programs and taking away existing ones that you never use. How locations and programs show up on the menu appears to be somewhat of a mystery, but, in fact, it's easy to hack. Go to C:Documents and Settings\SendTo, where is your username. The folder will be filled with shortcuts to all the locations you find on your Send To context menu. To remove an item from the Send To menu, delete the shortcut from the folder. To add an item to the menu, add a shortcut to the folder by highlighting the folder, choosing File New Shortcut, and following the instructions for creating a shortcut. The new setting will take effect immediately; you don't have to exit Windows Explorer for it to go into effect.
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Add Global Shortcut Menu Items to All File Types
2007-07-14 09:51:00
The previous section of this hack showed how to add shortcut menu items on a file-type-by-file-type basis. In other words, it will be available only on the shortcut menu for the one specific file type you specify. But you can also add that shortcut menu item to every type of file by using a Registry hack. This is useful when you have a program that can open a wide variety of file types, and you don't want to have to add a shortcut menu item for every one of those file types. I use the IrfanView graphics viewer for many different types of graphics, so I want it to show up on all those types. Although it will also show up on file types I won't use it with, such as Word files, it's still worth putting it on the menu globally because of all the time I save by not having to add shortcut menu items over and over again for each file type.Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*. Create a new subkey called Shell if it doesn't yet exist. The Shell subkey can control parts of...
More About: File , Global , Items , Menu , Types

Remove Open With Option
2007-07-11 00:09:00
When you right-click a file, one of the menu options is Open With, which provides a list of programs for you to open the file with. This list changes according to the type of file you're clicking. Depending on the file type, the list can get long because programs frequently add themselves to this list when you install them. Making things worse, there are times when the listed programs aren't applicable. For example, do you really want to open a .bmp bitmap graphics file with Microsoft Word? I think not.You can clean up the Open With list by using a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindows CurrentVersionExplorerFileExts. Look for the file extension whose Open With list you want to edit and find its OpenWithList subkeyHKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftW indowsCurrentVersionExplorerFileExts.bmpO penWithList, for example. The subkey will have an alphabetical list of String values. Open each value and examine the value data. ...

Open the Command Prompt from the Right-Click Menu
2007-07-04 04:24:00
I began computing in the days of DOS, and I still can't give up the command prompt. When it comes to doing down-and-dirty tasks like mass deleting or renaming of files, nothing beats it. I find myself frequently switching back and forth between Windows Explorer and the command prompt.Often, when using Windows Explorer, I want to open the command prompt at the folder that's my current location. That takes too many steps: opening a command prompt and then navigating to my current folder. However, there's a quicker way: you can add an option to the right-click context menu that will open a command prompt at your current folder. For example, if you were to right-click the C:My Stuff folder, you could then choose to open a command prompt at C:My Stuff.To add the option, run the Registry Editor, then go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Classes/Folde r/Shell. Create a new key called Command Prompt . For the default value, enter whatever text you want to appear when you right-click a folde...
More About: Open , Click , Menu

Give More Time for Processes to Close at Shutdown
2007-06-21 13:34:00
When you shut down Windows, XP gives each process, service, or application 20 seconds to close before the operating system turns off the computer. If the process, service, or application doesn't shut down within 20 seconds, a dialog box appears, prompting you to either wait 20 more seconds, immediately end the process, service, or application, or cancel shutdown.If this dialog box appears frequently, you might be running an application, service, or process that often takes more than 20 seconds to close. To solve the problem, you can increase the amount of time that XP waits to display the dialog box so that the dialog box will no longer appear. To do so, run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop. Look for the String value WaitToKillAppTime out. Edit the value by entering the amount of time you want XP to wait before displaying the dialog box, in milliseconds. The default is 20000, or 20 seconds. If you want XP to wait 25 seconds, enter the value 25000...
More About: Close , Give , Shut , Process

Stop Error Messages from Displaying on Startup
2007-06-16 06:36:00
If you constantly see an error message that you can't get rid offor example, from a piece of software that didn't uninstall properly and continues to give errors on startupyou can disable it from displaying on startup. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlWind ows. (This key holds a variety of Windows system settings, such as the location of your system directory.) Create a new DWORD called NoPopupsOnBoot and give it a value of 1. Exit the Registry and reboot for the setting to take effect. To disable it, either delete the DWORD value or give it a value of 0.
More About: Messages , Stop , Startup , Error , Mess

Automatically Turn On Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock
2007-06-15 04:25:00
When you start your PC, Num Lock , Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock don't automatically toggle on. You can automatically turn each of them on or off whenever your PC starts, for all accounts on the PC. As a practical matter, most people probably want to have only Num Lock automatically turned on, but this Registry hack allows you to force any combination of keys on or off. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_USERS.DefaultControl PanelKeyboard. Find the String value InitialKeyboardIndicators. By default, it is set to 0, which means that Num Lock, Scroll Lock, and Caps Lock are all turned off. Set it to any of the following values, depending on the combination of keys you want turned on or off:0Turn s off Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll Lock1Turns on Caps Lock2Turns on Num Lock3Turns on Caps Lock and Num Lock4Turns on Scroll Lock5Turns on Caps Lock and Scroll Lock6Turns on Num Lock and Scroll Lock7Turns on Caps Lock, Num Lock, and Scroll LockExit the Registry. When you restart, the new...
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Create One-Click Shutdown and Reboot Shortcuts
2007-06-14 00:20:00
Turning off or rebooting XP involves a several-step process: click the Start menu, choose Shut Down, and then select Shut Down or Restart. If you want, however, you can exit or reboot much more quickly, by creating a shortcut that enables one-click shutdowns. You can also use the shortcut to customize the shutdown or rebootfor example, by displaying a specific message or automatically shutting down any programs that are running.First, create a shortcut on your desktop by right-clicking the desktop, choosing New, and then choosing Shortcut. The Create Shortcut Wizard appears. In the box asking for the location of the shortcut, type shutdown. After you create the shortcut, double-clicking it will shut down your PC.But you can do much more with a shutdown shortcut than merely shut down your PC. You can add any combination of several switches to do extra duty, like this:shutdown -r -t 01 -c "Rebooting your PC"Double-clicking that shortcut will reboot your PC after a one-second delay and...
More About: Click , Shortcuts , Boot

Hide Components You Don't Want to Be Uninstalled
2007-06-12 09:00:00
You can use this same technique in reverse to hide components you don't want to be uninstalled accidentally. Simply put the word HIDE in the proper place in the entry that you don't want to show up in the Windows Component s Wizard. For example, if you want to hide the uninstall entry for the fax utility, edit its entry by changing:Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetupProc,f xsocm.inf,,7to:Fax=fxsocm.dll,FaxOcmSetup Proc,fxsocm.inf,HIDE,7
More About: Uninstall , Hide

Hack the Start Menu and Taskbar
2007-05-25 14:51:00
XP Professional's Group Policy Editor gives you instant access to changing more than three dozen interface settings. Here's how to use it to create your own personalized Start menu and taskbar.XP Professional's Group Policy Editor does more than just customize the Control Panel ; it gives you control over many aspects of XP's interface as wellin particular, the Start menu and taskbar. In fact, it gives you quick access to more than three dozen separate settings for them.Run the Group Policy Editor by typing gpedit.msc at the Run prompt or command line. Go to User ConfigurationAdministrative TemplatesStart Menu and Taskbar. As you can see in Figure 2-5, the right pane displays all the settings you can change. If you click the Extended tab at the bottom of the screen, you'll be shown a description of the setting that you've highlighted, along with an explanation of each option. Settings you can customize include showing the My Pictures icon, the Run menu, and the My Music icon...
More About: Hack , The Star

Clean Up the Most Frequently Used Programs List
2007-05-23 08:34:00
Make this infrequently used tool useful. Ban programs from the Most Frequently Used Programs List , change the number of programs on the list, or do away with it altogether to make more room for the Pinned Programs List.Windows keeps track of programs you use frequently and puts them on the Most Frequently Used Programs List, which appears on the new Windows XP-style Start menu (not the Classic-style Start menu) between the Pinned Items List at the top and the All Programs link at the bottom. The Most Frequently Used Programs List is a quick way to access programs you use often. But the rules for when programs appear on that list and disappear from the list are murky at best, and there appears to be no logic to what programs appear there.There is some hidden logic, however. XP bans a variety of programs from the list. If any of the following words or phrases is included in the program's shortcut name, the program will be excluded from the list: Documentation, Help, Install, More Inf...
More About: Clean , Grams , Gram

Build Customized Control Panels
2007-05-22 00:25:00
Armed with all this Control Panel hackery, you can build customized Control Panel s. For example, you can build a Control Panel for computer newbies, which hides the more technical applets and categories. Hide the applets in the Network and Internet Connections category, the Performance and Maintenance category, and the Sounds, Speech, and Audio Devices categorythat way, newbies can't get into trouble by making changes that will affect the system in unexpected ways.For system administrators, group all system-type applets into a single category, such as Network and Internet Connections. You'd probably want to keep all the existing applets there, but also add the Administrative Tools, Scheduled Tasks, and System applets to it, as well as the Printers and Faxes applet. (If the administrator has to handle other hardware, such as scanners, add the Scanners and Cameras applet as well.)For those who like to hack their systems and want instant, stripped-down access to customization tools, ...
More About: Build , Custom

Add Specific Folders to the Open Dialog Box
2007-05-21 21:51:00
When you use certain Windows applications (such as Notepad) to open a file, on the left side of the Open dialog box are a group of icons and folders (such as My Documents, My Recent Documents, Desktop, My Computer, and My Network) to which you can navigate to open files.Good idea, bad implementation. Do you really keep documents in My Computer? Unlikely, at best. It would be much more helpful if you could list only those folders that you use, and if you could choose to put any folder there, not just ones XP decides you need.In fact, you can do it with a Registry hack. It'll let you put just the folders of your choosing on the left side of the Open dialog box. Note that when you do this, it will affect XP applications such as Notepad and Paint that use the Open and Save common dialog boxes. However, it won't affect Microsoft Office applications and other applications that don't use the common dialog boxes.Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindo.. .
More About: Folders , Dialog , Specific , The O

Turn Off System Beeps
2007-05-15 08:57:00
To me, system beeps that my PC makes when it encounters certain system errors are like balloon tipsgnatlike annoyances that I can do without. So, I turn them off using a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor , go to HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelSound, and find the Beep and ExtendedSounds String values. Set each value to No. Exit the Registry and reboot. The beeps will no longer sound.
More About: System , Turn , Stem

Rename and Change "Unchangeable" Desktop Icons and System Objects
2007-05-13 10:42:00
To create the perfect XP interface, you want to be able to give every desktop icon and system object the name and icon of your choice. Here's how to do iteven to objects that appear to be unchangeable.Interface hackers (myself included) are a details-oriented bunch. We want to be able to control every part of the interface so that it reflects our personality. That means being able to choose our own icons for desktop items and system objects, give new names to system objects, and create our own balloon tipsfor example, adding a balloon tip to the Recycle Bin saying "Take out the trash!"But it's not as simple as you might think. Microsoft has a way of protecting its own. For example, it won't let you change the text and balloon tips associated with a variety of system objects, such as the Recycle Bin, Outlook, Internet Explorer, My Computer, and My Network Places.You can normally change both the name and the balloon text (text that appears when you hover your mouse over the icon) o...
More About: System , Desktop , Icons , Change , Rename

Remove "Nonremovable" Desktop Icons
2007-05-12 08:46:00
To create your own customized XP interface, you need to be able to remove certain desktop icons. A Registry hack lets you remove any you want, including those apparently protected by XP.Creating the perfect, customized XP interface doesn't mean just changing icons; it also means removing them. For example, many power users look down their noses at America Online, and yet, on many systems, that icon can't be removed easily.America Online isn't the only icon protected in this way; many others are as well. Which desktop icons are protected on your system will depend on your exact version of XP (for example, SP-1) and the manufacturer of your PC. The Recycle Bin is protected on all versions, but the America Online icon is protected on some systems, and not on others.To customize XP to your liking, you'll want to be able to delete these protected icons. To do so, you'll need a Registry hack. Run the Registry Editor and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindow sCurrentVersi...
More About: Desktop , Icons , Cons

Recategorize Control Panel Applets
2007-05-11 13:48:00
Hiding applets goes only partway toward cleaning up the Control Panel . You can also recategorize applets and put them in any category you want. For example, by default, the Mouse Properties applet can be found in the Printers and Other Hardware category, but if you prefer that it instead be found in Accessibility Options, you can move it there.To put an applet into any category you want, you need two pieces of information: the filename of the applet (for example, main.cpl for the Mouse Properties dialog box), and the Registry value for each Control Panel category (for example, 0x00000007 (7) for Accessibility Options). For filenames of each applet, see Table 2-1. For the Registry value for each Control Panel category, see Table 2-2. With these two pieces of information in hand, you can recategorize any or all Control Panel applets.Table 2-2. Control Panel categories and their Registry value data Control panel category Value data Accessibility Options 0x00000007 (7) Add or Remove Pro...
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